Raciality.com - and Brutality

"SB 1070 in Supreme Court will define us as a people, as Americans : will we embrace pluralism and our stated commitments to civil and human rights, or will we retreat to segregation and fragmentation ?"

2012-01-28T15:52:00.000-05:00

By Annie Lai, she is a Clinical Teaching Fellow at Yale Law School and former Staff Attorney for the ACLU of Arizona. She is the daughter of Chinese-Indonesian and Taiwanese immigrants and graduated from Duke and NYU School of Law

Hyphen Magazine
Asian America Unabridged
Finding Asian America in Arizona's Immigration Battle
By Annie Lai
January 23, 2012

Finding Asian America in Arizona's Immigration Battle

Some excerpts :

Then, last year, a handful of states launched a renewed attack on birthright citizenship, the constitutional guarantee that persons born on US soil will be treated as US citizens - - which was in fact settled over 100 years ago in a Supreme Court case involving a US-born Chinese American cook in San Francisco. Reviewing the anti-birthright citizenship proposals, I realized that I, too, would have qualified as an "anchor baby."

On the occasion of the ACLU’s 90th anniversary, I had the privilege of accompanying Jim and Marian to Ellis Island, where Marian gave remarks about her childhood behind barbed wire in an internment camp and Jim described his experience being profiled over half a century later. Back in Arizona, I began to realize that the advocacy community in Phoenix and across the country could no longer afford splintering or disunity. Through multi-ethnic, multi-generational and multi-issue coalition work, we defeated the birthright citizenship proposals (and many other anti-immigrant bills) in 2011.

We now find ourselves at a critical juncture. Just last month, the US Department of Justice, after an extensive investigation spanning two and a half years, found the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office to have engaged in a pattern and practice of racially profiling Latinos. A week later, a federal court enjoined the Sheriff''s Office from detaining Latinos solely on suspicion of being undocumented. At the same time, unfortunately, states like Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina are following Arizona’s example and have enacted their own SB 1070 copycat legislation.

As we head into another presidential election year, Obama has a challenging road ahead of him on immigration. While the administration’s promises of prosecutorial discretion may mitigate the harshest aspects of our immigration system, the list of opponents to dragnet programs like Secure Communities continues to grow. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has granted certiorari in the federal government’s challenge to SB 1070. The legal arguments in the case are about the proper role of states in immigration enforcement, but as with the other efforts to isolate and exclude particular groups in our nation’s history, something greater is at stake. Decisions such as this define us as a people, as Americans : will we embrace pluralism and our stated commitments to civil and human rights, or will we retreat to segregation and fragmentation?

.............

"Rapists and murderers, frequently cited as the main unauthorized immigrants ICE is trying to remove, made up a far smaller percentage of those held that day than the innocent, traffic violators or low-level drug offenders, according to ICE's crime breakdown"

2012-01-27T14:11:00.001-05:00

"The fact is, we're not deporting huge numbers of rapists and murderers," said Emily Tucker, director of policy and advocacy for the Detention Watch Network, which pushes for limiting detention and deportation. "They would like us to think that, but that isn't what is going on."

Huffington Post
No Conviction, No Freedom: Immigration Authorities Locked 13,000 In Limbo
By Elise FoleyJanuary 27, 2012

No Conviction, No Freedom: Immigration Authorities Locked 13,000 In Limbo

Some Excerpts :

WASHINGTON -- On a single day this past fall, the United States government held 13,185 people in immigration detention who had not been convicted of a crime, some of whom will not be charged with one, according to information The Huffington Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. Instead, at a cost of roughly 2 million taxpayer dollars per day, the men and women were detained while immigration authorities sorted out their fates.

............

The FOIA request for information on all immigrants in detention on Oct. 3, 2011, turned up a list of nearly 32,300. Forty percent of those held by ICE had not been convicted of a crime, nor were they awaiting criminal trial. Despite what the term "illegal immigration" implies, simply being in the country without status is a civil, not a criminal, offense.

..........

Locking people up is big business. The Corrections Corporation of America, which gives heavily to both parties, is explicit about the connection between immigrant detention policy and the private prison company's bottom line. "The demand for our correctional and detention facilities and services ... could be adversely affected by changes in existing criminal or immigration laws, crime rates in jurisdictions in which we operate, the relaxation of criminal or immigration enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction, sentencing or deportation practices, and the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws or the loosening of immigration laws," the company wrote in an analysis for investors filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. "Immigration reform laws which are currently a focus for legislators and politicians at the federal, state and local level also could materially adversely impact us."

ICE has been publicly attempting to shift away from detaining innocent immigrants, and has implemented new policies to increase prosecutorial discretion. Separate data provided by ICE indicates progress in that direction. The percentage of non-criminals in detention decreased significantly between the 2008 and 2011 fiscal years, from 71 percent to 54 percent, according to that data, and deportation of criminal immigrants has increased from previous years.

..............

International human rights law requires governments to protect detainees from violent crime while in custody. Yet incidents of rape and violent assaults in immigration detention centers are not uncommon.

********************

VIDEO : Governor of Arizona Jan Brewer could not convert President Obama into a frog, she forgot her magic wand. A big collection of Videos and photos with Weird Actions and Awkward Silences of Brewer

2012-01-27T12:48:00.000-05:00

Lawerence O'Donnell says that 91% of the People in polls approve the State of the Union Speech of President Obama. Big Success of the President in communicating with common Americans. Richard Wolffe ( MSNBC political analyst ) and Howard Fineman ( Huffington Post and MSNBC ) comment.

Tense exchange between Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer

Uploaded by PresidentObama3 on Jan 25, 2012

Tense exchange between Obama and Arizona Gov. Brewer

******************************

VIDEO : Tricia Erickson, super enemy of Mitt Romney, she is the daughter of a Mormon Bishop and left that Religion at an early age. She considers Mormonism as a horrible cult that is incompatible with being president

2012-01-25T19:08:00.001-05:00

Mitt Romney has to obey the Prophet in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has sworn that Church is before Country. His allegiance to Church is stronger. Mitt can not obey two masters.

The Fantasies of Mormonism can not be more absurd.

Tricia Erickson writes books against Mitt Romney.

Thom Hartmann and Tricia Erickson: Mitt Romney and the Mormon Chruch

Uploaded by thomhartmann on Jul 13, 2011

Progressive radio talk show host Thom Hartmann speaks with Tricia Erickson, Damage Control/Crisis Management Specialist / Political consultant / Author of the new book "Can Mitt Romney Serve Two Masters? The Mormon Church Versus The Office Of The Presidency of the United States of America" / daughter of a Mormon,. They discuss Mormon practices and U.S. politicians

Thom Hartmann and Tricia Erickson: Mitt Romney and the Mormon Chruch

*************************************

Where are the American Protestants so fond of the Bible and the Bible quotes about the Divinity of Jesus ?? - Why are they so passive before the Mormon to be president ?? -*- Is Mormonism so innocuous to their faith ??

2012-01-24T18:23:00.002-05:00

O Mother State, how quenched thy Sinai fires!
Is there none left of thy stanch Mayflower breed?
No spark among the ashes of thy sires,
Of Virtue's altar-flame the kindling seed?
Are these thy great men, these that cringe and creep,
And writhe through slimy ways to place and power?--
How long, O Lord, before thy wrath shall reap
Our frail-stemmed summer prosperings in their flower?
Oh for one hour of that undaunted stock
That went with Vane and Sidney to the block!

From a poem by James Russell Lowell : "To John Gorham Palfrey"

James Russell Lowell ( 1819 – 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat.

John Gorham Palfrey (1796 – 1881) was a fierce anti-slavery fighter that lost positions in the U. S. Congress and public offices for his strong views for freedom for all men. After Abraham Lincoln's election in 1861, Senator Charles Sumner secured him appointment as Postmaster of Boston, a post he held from 1861 to 1867.

The warmth of James Russell Lowell's affection was almost ideal, and it best expressed itself in memorial verses in honor of his friends. These verses show how greatly he valued courage and faithfulness in defense of the right, and they have a distinctly ethical character. The first of these poems is addressed " To John Gorham Palfrey," who had bolted from his party rather than support a candidate submissive to the encroachments of slavery.

This is a collection of poems to friends that he admired and loved for their political stances and affirmations, written circa 1848, 13 years before the American Civil War.

********************************************

Vicente's Tirade and Rant follows :

*********************************************

How can the Greatest Country on earth and the Greatest Empire that has ever existed be ruled by a brainwashed brainwasher ??

By a Mormon Missionary ??? -- People do not know the History of this Religion founded by such frauds that wanted to exploit ignorance, foolishness, stupidity .... With the topmost in Fantasy and Absurd, contradicted by Science, like the Genetics of the Native American Indians or the reading of the Egyptian Scrolls of the "Book of Abraham" that "Prophet" Joseph Smith translated according to his schemes of swindling fools.

What about raping so many young girls in the History of this cult ??

What about those Old Mormons in Utah that castrated a young and handsome rival in order to enslave a preadolescent girl in their brutal harems ??

What about the Brutal Racism of Mormonism for most of its History ??

I even doubt that Mitt Romney believes in the foolish tenets of this faith.

I am not a Christian but I am amazed by the unChristian and antiChristian dogmas of Mormonism.

They contradict the Theology that Christianity has had during 2,000 years : Catholics and Protestants.

You have to go to some Gnostics or to the Cathars to find such "Horrible" Heretics.

And why Americans love and admire such millionaires that have made their fortune by dubious ways ??

Is it that they believe that they are going to be billionaires in the same Exclusive Clubs as Mitt ?? - Are they realistic ??

..........

Vicente Duque

Florida's January 31 presidential primary : 452,619 Latinos are registered as Republicans representing 11.1% of all Republican registered voters. And 564,513 Latino registered voters are registered as Democrats, representing 12.4% of all Democratic registered voters

2012-01-24T16:16:00.003-05:00

"As recently as 2006, more Hispanics in Florida were registered as Republicans than as Democrats. By 2008, the balance tipped over to the Democrats. This year that trend has accelerated, with the gap–111,894 registered voters–between Hispanics who are registered as Democrats and those registered as Republicans wider now than in 2008 or 2010".

Everything about Florida Voter Registration Statistics with relation to Hispanics : Political Affiliation, Country of Origin, Education, Home ownership.

Pew Research Center : Factsheet

Latinos in the 2012 Election: Florida

Released on January 23, 2012

Latinos in the 2012 Election: Florida

Some excerpts :

Geographically, the majority of Hispanic Republican registered voters are located in South Florida. According to the Division of Elections, 58.5% (264,721) are in Miami-Dade County alone. By contrast, among the state’s Hispanic Democratic registered voters, a smaller share, 33.9% (191,359), are registered to vote in Miami-Dade County.

Hispanics in Florida’s Eligible Voter Population

The Hispanic population in Florida is the third-largest in the nation. More than 4.2 million Hispanics reside in Florida, 8% of all Hispanics in the United States.

Florida’s population is 23% Hispanic, the sixth-highest Hispanic population share nationally.

There are 2.1 million Hispanic eligible voters in Florida—the third-largest Hispanic eligible-voter population nationally. California ranks first with 5.9 million.

Some 16% of Florida eligible voters are Hispanic, the fifth-largest Hispanic eligible voter population share nationally. New Mexico ranks first with 39%.

One-half (49%) of Hispanics in Florida are eligible to vote, ranking Florida 12th nationwide in the share of the Hispanic population that is eligible to vote. By contrast, 81% of the state’s white population is eligible to vote.

Characteristics of Eligible Voters

Age. Florida’s Hispanic eligible voters are younger than all eligible voters in Florida—25% of Hispanic eligible voters are ages 18 to 29 versus 19% of all eligible voters.

Citizenship. Some 43% of Hispanic eligible voters in Florida are naturalized U.S. citizens, compared with 13% of all Florida eligible voters.

Nativity. Hispanic eligible voters in Florida are less likely to be native-born citizens (57%) than are Hispanic eligible voters nationwide (75%).

Hispanic Origin. Hispanic eligible voters in Florida have a different country-of-origin profile from Hispanic eligible voters nationwide. One-third (32%) of Hispanic eligible voters in Florida are of Cuban origin, 28% are of Puerto Rican origin and 9% are of Mexican origin. By contrast, among Hispanic eligible voters nationwide, 59% are Mexican, 14% are Puerto Rican and 5% are Cuban.

Educational Attainment. Two-in-ten Latino eligible voters in Florida (20%) have not completed high school. That is lower than the rate for Latino eligible voters nationwide—25%—but greater than the rate for all U.S. eligible voters (12%) or all eligible voters in Florida (13%).

Homeownership. Two-thirds of Hispanic eligible voters in Florida (67%) live in owner-occupied homes versus 58% of Hispanic eligible voters nationwide. Somewhat greater shares of all eligible voters in Florida (71%) and all eligible voters nationwide (69%) live in owner-occupied homes.

Characteristics of Eligible Voters in Florida, by Race and Ethnicity

Number of Eligible Voters. White eligible voters outnumber both Hispanic and black eligible voters in Florida by more than 4 to 1.

Age. Black eligible voters are younger than Hispanic or white eligible voters in Florida—28% of black eligible voters are ages 18 to 29 compared with 25% of Hispanic and 16% of white eligible voters.

Educational Attainment. More than half (53%) of Hispanic eligible voters have attended college or earned at least a bachelor’s degree compared with 60% of white and 46% of black eligible voters.

Homeownership. Hispanic eligible voters are less likely than white eligible voters in Florida to live in owner-occupied homes—67% versus 76%.

.....

VIDEO : ABC News : Mitt Romney's Big Fortune in the Cayman Island, this is a Tax Haven and Heaven with lots of secrecy that allow rich people to launder money or cover the origin. Who are the other investors ?? - Who pays money to Mitt Romney ??

2012-01-21T18:16:00.002-05:00

Mitt Romney Stashing Millions In Offshore Banks :

This is a disaster for the U. S. Government and for the U. S. Taxpayers.

When Mitt Romney was running for the U. S. Senate for Massachusetts against Ted Kenney in 1994, he demanded that Ted disclose all his tax returns, and business deals. Mitt Romney lost to incumbent senator Ted Kennedy.

Uploaded by postpanic2 on Jan 19, 2012

January 18, 2012 ABC News

Mitt Romney Stashing Millions In Offshore Banks

*******************************

Post Mormon Organization : "Native American DNA and its impact on Mormonism" : By Dr Simon Southerton - A mormon became a great student of science : Genetics, History, Archaeology and discovered the lies of Joseph Smith and "Book of Mormon"

2012-01-20T18:10:00.003-05:00

This man spent a lot of his life preaching Mormonism, making converts and having a high post in this Church. But he was very fond of science and little by little he discovered the great scam of "Prophet" Joseph Smith.

His process of conversion to Post-Mormon was oveloaded with pain, psychological difficulties and inadequacies. He may have lost many friends and relations, but finally science proved to him the absurdity of Mormonism.

He discovered that the assertions of Joseph Smith about Native American Indians are contradicted by the science of Genetics and DNA.

Also the "Book of Abraham" written by Joseph Smith is another swindle and cheat of a Great Con Man. A Lier and Scoundrel, that was the "Prophet" and Founder of Mormonism.

His life as a Latter Day Saint was not easy, it was a painful and difficult psychological process that led him to embrace science and reject the fantasy and the delusions of this Religion.

Post Mormon Organization
Native American DNA and its impact on Mormonism
By Dr Simon Southerton

Native American DNA and its impact on Mormonism

*********************

Newt Gingrich ( King of Grandiosity ) : "If I win the [South Carolina] primary on Saturday, I will be the nominee. If I don't win the primary on Saturday, we will probably nominate a moderate and he will lose to Obama"

2012-01-19T16:06:00.002-05:00

I comment about an article in "The Atlantic" Magazine :

Newt is like a super model and actress that I know that always says that she is the sexiest girl in the World and acts as if she is perfectly convinced and persuaded of that fact of powerful attraction to men, even if she is 60 years old and has undergone many plastic surgeries and medical treatments. And that outstanding Lady is still in show business and advertising, believe it or not, Mr Ripley !.

Newt is campaigning with all his shrewdness and grandiosity and presenting himself as the only possible and practical anti-Romney. Newt is the king of self-assuredness, imposing and impressive pretension.

"I think one of the great weaknesses that Republicans have is that they're boring," - Newt said on Wednesday

"They're boring! They don't know how to communicate!" he said. "I'm not a normal Republican. This is part of why the Washington establishment doesn't like me. I think being interesting beats being boring. I think communicating beats hiding"

If you believe that you have the power, then you have it. - And Newt is surging in the South Carolina polls for the Republican Primary that will take place on next Saturday, January 21 or 2012.

The Atlantic
The Unsinkable Newt Gingrich
Left for dead time and again, the former speaker tries for another improbable comeback in South Carolina.
By Molly Ball
Jan 19 2012

The Unsinkable Newt Gingrich

Some excerpts :

Peevish, pedantic, grandiose -- Gingrich is all of these things, and you don't have to spend much time around him to start rolling your eyes. ("I really am a bold change agent," he reflected, pensively, at one point.) But he's also a tremendous amount of fun, especially if he's on your side. His audacity is breathtaking, his imagination infectious, his humor as vicious as it is delectable.

Gingrich projects the promise of a total victory for the conservative argument in the war of ideas: "I believe we can go into every neighborhood in America, in every background, and say to people, 'Would you rather your children had dependence, with food stamps from the government? Or independence, with a payckeck from a job? And I believe we will win that argument everywhere, and I think we can set up a campaign this fall of extraordinary proportions by bringing the country together."

So, fine, Gingrich is a blowhard. But he's a very good blowhard.

...................

In Easley, he repeated a version of that line, warning the crowd that "without saying anything negative about Rick Perry or Rick Santorum, the fact is, as you look at the polls... there is one candidate that can stop Mitt Romney. A vote for anyone else is a vote that allows Mitt Romney to potentially be our nominee."

.........

Arizona : Organizations and groups who have ve been fighting on a grassroots level against SB 1070 are now turning their attention to voter registration, get out the vote, and throwing their support behind political candidates, on every level, from city council to U.S. Congress

2012-01-18T16:53:00.000-05:00

The genie is out of the bottle now, Latinos in Arizona realize that Republicans are against them. SB 1070-inspired a big protest movement that was very intense, but that level of intensity is not sustainable forever. That’s when people began to run for city council and school board and the state legislature and Congress. The idea was to take the ethos of the grassroots movement to the establishment.

NewsTaco.com
Anti-Latino Politics in Arizona spurs New Political Leadership
By Sara Inés Calderón
January 18, 2012

Anti-Latino Politics in Arizona spurs New Political Leadership

Some excerpts :

The anti-Latino political environment that has characterized Arizona’s state politics for the past several years is beginning to have it unintended consequence: empowering Latinos in that state to run for public office. What it comes down to is that organizations and groups of people who’ve been fighting on a grassroots level to combat the policies of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and SB 1070 are now turning their attention to voter registration, get out the vote, and throwing their support behind political candidates, on every level, from city council to U.S. Congress.

NewsTaco spoke to a couple beneficiaries of this political environment, as well as the state Democratic Party. As Arpaio is a Republican, and SB 1070 was proposed and signed by Republican politicians, the Democratic Party in Arizona has emerged as the party of choice for Latinos looking to shake up the state of affairs there. And, we’ve been told that the Barack Obama campaign, as well as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, are investing in these young Latino leaders and organizers in hopes of boosting registration and voter turnout.

Currently there are about 500,000 registered Latino voters in Arizona; 47% are registered as Democrats, 15% as Republicans and 37% as independents.

“SB 1070 certainly served as a rallying point, and we’ve seen consistent evidence of that with an exciting level of enthusiasm across the party heading into 2012,” Arizona Democratic Party Communications Director Andy Barr told NewsTaco. “All the new leaders and organizers who we’ve had step up in the party has already led to electoral success – helping boost turnout for our recent victories in Phoenix and Tucson, as well as in the recall of the bill’s author, Russell Pearce.”

Some of the names that we can include in this movement are: Randy Parraz (U.S. Senate in 2010), Wenona Benally Baldenegro (U.S. Congress District 1) and her husband Sal Baldenegro Jr. (state house district LD2), Martin Casada (2010 house), Daniel Valenzuela (Phoenix city council), Lorenzo Sierra (state house district 19), among others.

.........

I am deeply frustrated because WIKIPEDIA.ORG is in a strike to protest against the U. S. Congress - They say this : "Imagine a World - Without Free Knowledge - For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history"

2012-01-18T12:18:00.000-05:00

I support Wikipedia's strike and I hate restrictions against free speech :

Wikipedia.org is in strike against the U. S. Congress - They continue writing :

"Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.

Make your voice heard"

My Comment :

I need to study in Wikipedia the Byzantine Empire or Byzantium, the Parthians, Sassanids, Persians, Armenians, Kurds, Turks and others for the period between years 300 until the fall of Byzantium in 1453.

I have already written about the many defeats of Roman Armies in the "Hinterland" or Deep Lands of the Middle East and Near Asia ( Iraq or Mesopotamia, Iran, Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, etc ... ) - I publish online in GATHER.COM and in my blogs PRESIDENTING.COM and RACIALITY.COM.

The Romans suffered a lot of defeats in the Near East, also the Byzantines suffered a lot in those Lands. Later the Crusaders, and in modern times the British until our lives in years of the third millennium, when we are witnessing more defeats of the Western Nations in those cursed lands of the "Graveyards of Empires"...

.........

Vicente Duque

Super Conservative "American Thinker" : Mitt Romney: The Last Republican President? - "The only criterion for people running for president should be: what have they actually done and accomplished in their previous jobs or positions ?"

2012-01-17T12:42:00.000-05:00

.
American Thinker
Mitt Romney: The Last Republican President?
By Steve McCann
January 17, 2012

Mitt Romney: The Last Republican President?

Some excerpts :

There now appears to be an inevitability surrounding Mitt Romney and the Republican nomination for president. Are the American people prepared to sit through another term of George H.W. Bush? The chances are that Romney would be the last Republican president, as the Party may fly apart under his rule.

..................

Mitt Romney, by his actions in Massachusetts both campaigning for the U.S. Senate and as Governor, has shown himself to be more than willing to compromise with the Left and the Democrats. He has proposed and passed the socialist RomneyCare policy, pro-abortion regulations, and gun control, and raised numerous taxes and fees while increasing spending dramatically. During the current campaign he refuses to call Barack Obama what he is; instead Romney refers to him as just "being over his head."

If ever a candidate mirrored the mindset and approach of George H.W. Bush, it is Mitt Romney.

This is the last hurrah of the Republican establishment. The conservatives and libertarians will vote for Romney in November, but only because he is not Barack Obama. There will be no enthusiasm, which will hurt the down ballot contests for the U.S. Senate, the House and state governorships. Despite the factors weighing against Obama in this upcoming election, it will be a much closer contest that it should be; perhaps a razor thin victory for Romney.

If Romney were to lose the election, there will be a grass-roots revolt against the Republican Party which will spell its demise. If he wins and the nation, through the mis-directed policies of Romney and the Republicans in the Congress, continues on its current path of compromising and nibbling around the edges of the nation's problems, then Romney will be the last Republican president and the specter of the Democrats re-assuming power will be a reality.

This is not only the most important election for the nation in over a century but also one that will determine the fate of a political party founded in 1854 in opposition to slavery and the corruption in the Democratic Party.

............

Video of Miracle : God tells a woman to go to Romney and Mitt gives $50 dollars to the poor lady from his wallet. This reminds me of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Papa Doc ( Francois Duvalier ) and his brutal thugs the "Tonton Macoutes" in Haiti

2012-01-16T20:21:00.005-05:00

.
A miracle tells us that Mitt Romney should be President of the USA. See VIDEO of this miracle at bottom of this page :

From CNN

"Sumter, South Carolina (CNN) – Mitt Romney gave a handful of cash Saturday to a woman who had told him she was struggling financially after an event in Sumter, South Carolina".

"An aide said the GOP candidate gave the supporter "what he had on him" - about $50 or $60".

............................

"I was on the highway praying and said, 'God, tell me how to get [my] lights on, and I pulled up to a stop sign and his bus was there,'" Williams said.
.................

"God didn't tell me to go to nobody else," she said when asked whether she had approached other presidential candidates. "He told me to pray for Romney."

CNN Politics
Romney gives cash to struggling supporter at rally
streitfeld head shot
Posted by CNN Political Producer Rachel Streitfeld
January 14, 2012

Romney gives cash to struggling supporter at rally

Hugo Chávez's "Aló Presidente" TV program follows that principle. The president hears the cry of the individual, and directs his ministers to address it immediately.

**********************

Papa Doc ( Francois Duvalier ) went in his car surrounded by his brutal thugs the "Tonton Macoutes". Papa Doc in the caravan of cars used to throw coins to the poorest people in the worst slums of Haiti.

From Wikipedia :

Barbot was the leader of the "Tonton Macoutes"

The plot failed and Duvalier subsequently ordered a massive search for Barbot and his fellow conspirators. When during the search Duvalier was told that Barbot had transformed himself into a black dog, Duvalier ordered that all black dogs in Haiti be put to death. Barbot was later captured and shot by the Tonton Macoutes in July 1963. In other incidents, Duvalier ordered the head of an executed rebel to be packed in ice and brought to him to allow him to commune with the dead man's spirit.[16] Peep holes were carved into the walls of the interrogation chambers, through which Duvalier personally observed Haitian detainees being tortured and submerged in baths of sulfuric acid; sometimes, he was directly in the room during the tortures.

************************

I hope that Mitt Romney does not torture us in Sulphuric Acid - Republicans have been notable friends of torture lately.

Vicente Duque

....

Romney Gives Unemployed Woman Cash on Ropeline

Uploaded by theync on Jan 15, 2012

Amid shaking hands and signing campaign posters, Mitt Romney did something he has never done before on the ropeline: He took out his wallet and handed a wad of cash to a woman waiting to shake his hand

.......

Obama was always planning for eight years, not four. And if he is reelected, he will have won a battle more important than 2008: for it will be a mandate for an eight-year shift away from the excesses of inequality, overreach abroad, and reckless deficit spending of the last three decades

2012-01-16T14:34:00.000-05:00

.
"It will recapitalize him to entrench what he has done already and make it irreversible".

My comment : This is a very long, wonderful and strong Pro-Obama article.

This author Andrew Sullivan is very intelligent and he is like a chimera : An imaginary monster made up of grotesquely disparate parts like lion, serpent, eagle, etc ... Mr Sullivan seems to have the brain of a liberal coexisting with the brain of a conservative and a libertarian inside his skull. I was reading the biography of this guy and was astonished to find that such people exist.

Newsweek Magazine
How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics
January 16, 2012

By Andrew Sullivan

Andrew SullinaThe right calls him a socialist, the left says he sucks up to Wall Street, and independents think he's a wimp. Andrew Sullivan on how the president may just end up outsmarting them all.

Andrew Sullivan, former editor of The New Republic, weekly columnist for the Sunday Times of London, brought his hugely popular blog, The Dish, to the Daily Beast in 2011. He's the author of several books, including "Virtually Normal," "Love Undetectable," and "The Conservative Soul."

How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics

Some excerpts :

A caveat: I write this as an unabashed supporter of Obama from early 2007 on. I did so not as a liberal, but as a conservative-minded independent appalled by the Bush administration’s record of war, debt, spending, and torture. I did not expect, or want, a messiah. I have one already, thank you very much. And there have been many times when I have disagreed with decisions Obama has made—to drop the Bowles-Simpson debt commission, to ignore the war crimes of the recent past, and to launch a war in Libya without Congress’s sanction, to cite three. But given the enormity of what he inherited, and given what he explicitly promised, it remains simply a fact that Obama has delivered in a way that the unhinged right and purist left have yet to understand or absorb. Their short-term outbursts have missed Obama’s long game—and why his reelection remains, in my view, as essential for this country’s future as his original election in 2008.

.........................

Sure, Obama cannot regain the extraordinary promise of 2008. We’ve already elected the nation’s first black president and replaced a tongue-tied dauphin with a man of peerless eloquence. And he has certainly failed to end Washington’s brutal ideological polarization, as he pledged to do. But most Americans in polls rightly see him as less culpable for this impasse than the GOP. Obama has steadfastly refrained from waging the culture war, while the right has accused him of a “war against religion.” He has offered to cut entitlements (and has already cut Medicare), while the Republicans have refused to raise a single dollar of net revenue from anyone. Even the most austerity-driven government in Europe, the British Tories, are to the left of that. And it is this Republican intransigence—from the 2009 declaration by Rush Limbaugh that he wants Obama “to fail” to the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s admission that his primary objective is denying Obama a second term—that has been truly responsible for the deadlock. And the only way out of that deadlock is an electoral rout of the GOP, since the language of victory and defeat seems to be the only thing it understands.

If I sound biased, that’s because I am. Biased toward the actual record, not the spin; biased toward a president who has conducted himself with grace and calm under incredible pressure, who has had to manage crises not seen since the Second World War and the Depression, and who as yet has not had a single significant scandal to his name. “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle,” George Orwell once wrote. What I see in front of my nose is a president whose character, record, and promise remain as grotesquely underappreciated now as they were absurdly hyped in 2008. And I feel confident that sooner rather than later, the American people will come to see his first term from the same calm, sane perspective. And decide to finish what they started.

...................

VIDEO : Mike Papantonio : Racism Prevalent at GOP Primaries - Republican Party is driven by Racism - Chauncey DeVega, Blogger of "We Are Respectable Negroes" blogspot talks with Papantonio - "Ku Klux Klan language hasn't gone away !"

2012-01-14T17:12:00.001-05:00

.
"Tea Party is very fond of Race Baiting"

"We are respectable Negroes" has address WeAreRespectableNegroes.Blogspot.com

Uploaded by golefttv on Jan 12, 2012

When you drill down to the heart of the GOP's war on voting, you'll see that racism is the driving factor. And that racism isn't just coming in the form of voter suppression -- even the GOP Tea Party candidates are diving head first into the realm of race baiting. Mike Papantonio talks about how racism is driving the Tea Party candidates' campaigns with blogger and author Chauncey DeVega.

Papantonio: Racism Prevalent at GOP Primaries

**********************************************

HuffPost : Unprompted striking Romney comment about Latinos, he started talking about them "out of the blue", unexpectedly, without any warning or preparation, or without being asked specifically about them. He has been a Great Enemy and Bigot against Latinos

2012-01-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

Mitt Romney is trying to repair the broken egg of his relation to Latinos, in order to get their votes in the General Election. During the Republican Primaries he has been Racist and Bigot, because this behavior is profitable for him, but he will have to change tone after being nominated by GOP.

After profiting from his intolerant Remarks on Latinos, Mitt Romney is preparing to change his narrative on them for the General Election. Good Job of Lies and Hypocrisy.

The Opportunist Flip-Flopper was briefly betrayed by his subconscious preparations to change positions much later after being nominated.

Huffington Post
Mitt Romney's Hispanic Voter 'Damage' Makes The Fix-It List
By Jon Ward
January 14, 2012

Mitt Romney's Hispanic Voter 'Damage' Makes The Fix-It List

Some excerpts :

WASHINGTON -- In a campaign appearance on Monday in New Hampshire, Mitt Romney was asked how to woo voters to the Republican party and to his candidacy. Out of the blue, he started talking about Latino voters.

"Perhaps one of the best tests would be to take a group like, uh, like, um, Latino Americans, and say, 'How can I convince more Latino Americans to, say, support a Republican?'" Romney said. "If I can do that, why, I will be doing well pretty broadly."

He's right, of course. Latino voters are about 9 percent of the American electorate, and that number is expected to rise this election and much more in the years to come. President Barack Obama's reelection effort has made Hispanic voters a top priority.

Romney's comment was striking because the former Massachusetts governor has not talked about Latino voters much during this election, except when he's been taking a hard line on immigration reform. He has said that all undocumented immigrants should have to return to their countries of origin and that he would veto the Dream Act. He battered Texas Gov. Rick Perry for passing a law in the Lone Star State allowing children of undocumented immigrants to receive in-state tuition to Texas universities.

In an interview with The Huffington Post a few days before the Iowa caucuses, Romney refused to engage the question of whether his positions on immigration might hurt his ability to win Latinos.

His unprompted reference to Hispanic voters was the first signal that after narrowly winning the Iowa caucuses –- where the Republican electorate is agitated about the issue of illegal immigration -– Romney is aiming to make up some ground that might have been lost.

"I think he recognizes that in a general election context, and I think he's starting to think in a general election context, I think he realizes he's got to undo some damage there," said a leading Republican strategist, who asked not to be identified so he could speak more frankly about the negative impact of Romney's positions so far on the issue.

............

History of the failure of "Western Civilization" in the conquest of the Middle East, with only partial successes in the near East or Mediterranean and Great Failures in the "Hinterland" of the Middle East - Chapter 1

2012-01-11T18:05:00.003-05:00

I do not discuss today the Failures of Crusaders, British Imperialists, Americans or NATO. Only the Roman Empire.

The amazing long succession of failures, military catastrophes and defeats of Westerners, including Europeans, Romans, Crusaders, etc .... Culmination : the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars of our days.

This is my chapter one mainly concerned with the Roman Empire. I quote so much from Wikipedia, that you may consider me a copyst and I would not be offended. But this long rosary of failures and defeats is no invention or lies of my imagination. You may check the Wikipedia against my assertions.

Enter Rome, imperfect "Republic" ( The Public Thing ) in which the nobility of Patricians disputed and usurped power from the equastrian class and the people. The people became corrupted as a Populace or "Plebs". Very Plebeyan People that only wanted "Panem et Circens", that is "Bread and Violent Spectacles".

The Romans always had the most stupid ideas of conquering the Middle East and were only partially successful in the closer parts of Turkey or the Holy Land of Israel, Syria and Egypt.

But once the Romans went further they constantly failed.

Marcus Licinius Crassus (ca. 115 BC – 53 BC) was a Roman general and politician who commanded the right wing of Sulla's army at the Battle of the Colline Gate, suppressed the slave revolt led by Spartacus, provided political and financial support to Julius Caesar and entered into the political alliance known as the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Julius Caesar. At the height of his fortune he was allegedly worth more than 200,000,000 sestertii. He is considered the wealthiest man in Roman history, and perhaps one of the richest men in all history. Crassus nonetheless desired recognition for his military victories; this ambition for acclaim eventually led him into Syria, where he was defeated and killed in the Roman defeat at Carrhae against a Parthian Spahbod (General) named Surena.

Next Marc Anthony or Marcus Antonius ( 83 BC – 30 BC), lover of Cleopatra

But by now, Antony was skeptical of Octavian's true support of his Parthian cause. Leaving Octavia pregnant with her second child Antonia in Rome, he sailed to Alexandria, where he expected funding from Cleopatra, the mother of his twins. The queen of Egypt lent him the money he needed for the army, and after capturing Jerusalem and surrounding areas in 37 BC, he installed Herod as puppet king of Judaea, replacing the Parthian appointee Antigonus. Antony then invaded Parthian territory with an army of about 100,000 Roman and allied troops but the campaign proved a disaster. After defeats in battle, the desertion of his Armenian allies and his failure to capture Parthian strongholds convinced Antony to retreat, his army was further depleted by the hardships of its retreat through Armenia in the depths of winter, losing more than a quarter of its strength in the course of the campaign.

Trajan ( 53 – 117), was Roman Emperor from 98 to 117 AD.

It was at this point that Trajan's health started to fail him. The fortress city of Hatra, on the Tigris in his rear, continued to hold out against repeated Roman assaults. He was personally present at the siege and it is possible that he suffered a heat stroke while in the blazing heat. Shortly afterwards, the Jews inside the Eastern Roman Empire rose up in rebellion once more, as did the people of Mesopotamia. Trajan was forced to withdraw his army in order to put down the revolts. Trajan saw it as simply a temporary setback, but he was destined never to command an army in the field again, turning his Eastern armies over to the high ranking legate and governor of Judaea, Lusius Quietus, who in early 116 had been in charge of the Roman division who had recovered Nisibis and Edessa from the rebels;[31] Quietus was promised a consulate in the following year (118 AD) for his victories but he was murdered before this could occur. It has been theorized that Quietus was executed on the orders of the new emperor, Hadrian, for fear of Quietus' popular standing with the army and his close connections to Trajan.

Note from Vicente : This conquests of Trajan were useless because Emperor Hadrian was extremely intelligent and returned the conquered territories to their old kings. Hadrian knew that these conquests were crazy because Rome did not have the Military Power and Will to fight War constantly for them. Obama is our Emperor Hadrian.

Emperor Aurelian ( 214 or 215 – 275), was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275

In 275, Aurelian marched towards Asia Minor, preparing another campaign against the Sassanids: the deaths of Kings Shapur I (272) and Hormizd I (273) in quick succession, and the rise to power of a weakened ruler (Bahram I), set the possibility to attack the Sassanid Empire.

On his way, the Emperor suppressed a revolt in Gaul — possibly against Faustinus, an officer or usurper of Tetricus — and defeated barbarian marauders in Vindelicia (Germany).

However, Aurelian never reached Persia, as he was murdered while waiting in Thrace to cross into Asia Minor.

Note from Vicente : Aurelian was a Great Warrior and Conqueror but his conquests in Asia Minor were difficult to hold after his assassination, and the Roman Empire became weak.

Emperor Julian "the Apostate" ( 331/332 – 363)

This proved to be a hasty decision, for they were on the wrong side of the Tigris with no clear means of retreat and the Persians had begun to harass them from a distance, burning any food in the Romans' path. A second council of war on 16 June 363 decided that the best course of action was to lead the army back to the safety of Roman borders, not through Mesopotamia, but northward to Corduene.[72][73]

[edit] Death

Detail from the Sassanian relief of the incoronation of Ardashir II showing a defeated Julian.

During the withdrawal Julian's forces suffered several attacks from Sassanid forces.[73] In one such engagement on 26 June 363, the indecisive Battle of Samarra near Maranga, Julian was wounded when the Sassanid army raided his column. In the haste of pursuing the retreating enemy, Julian chose speed rather than caution, taking only his sword and leaving his coat of mail.[74] He received a wound from a spear that reportedly pierced the lower lobe of his liver, the peritoneum and intestines. The wound was not immediately deadly. Julian was treated by his personal physician, Oribasius of Pergamum, who seems to have made every attempt to treat the wound. This probably included the irrigation of the wound with a dark wine, and a procedure known as gastrorrhaphy, the suturing of the damaged intestine. On the third day a major hemorrhage occurred and the emperor died during the night.[75][76] As Julian wished, his body was buried outside Tarsus, though it was later removed to Constantinople.[77]

*****************************

There are more defeats of the Romans in the Middle East Hinterland. I am only scratching the surface and the readers have to be merciful on this humble scribe. I may add more emperors, and roman generals defeated in the Middle East.

Wait for the Crusaders and other "Western Civilization" fools trying to conquer the Middle East.

With Love :

Vicente Duque

The Jesus Christ of Mormonism is not the Jesus Christ of the Bible. - Brigham Young, said, "When the Virgin Mary conceived the Child Jesus ... He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is His father? He is the first of the human family" (Journal of Discourses, pages 50-51)

2012-01-11T15:46:00.000-05:00

You may be an atheist like me and accept that Pastor Cooper P. Abrams, III, Castle Country Baptist Church, P.O. Box 665, Price, Utah 84501 is doing a very beautiful and learned defense of Christianity against the anti Christian teachings of Mormons.

Pastor Cooper P. Abrams, III, explains to us with many Bible Quotes ( many of them from the New Testament ) how unChristian and anti Christian Mormonism is. If you accept the New and Old Testament as the ultimate and best explanation of Christianity then you have to reject Mormonism. It totally contradicts 2,000 years of Christianity.

Mormonism contradicts many tenets of the faith and the Theology that Catholics and Protestants have believed during almost 2,000 years - Our Pastor shows that there is no possible reconciliation in Theology. And I respect him for that even if I am an atheist or agnostic.

Are Mormons Christian?
"The Bible and LDS Scriptures Prove Conclusively that Mormons Are not Biblical Christians"
by Cooper Abrams

Are Mormons Christian?

Some excerpts :

The Jesus Christ of Mormonism is not the Jesus Christ of the Bible.

The Mormon Jesus is the son of this man-god. The Mormon Jesus is the brother of Lucifer, and according to LDS teaching, he married several of the Marys of the New Testament. He is not, to the LDS church, "God incarnate" as the Bible plainly states. Clearly, the Mormon god and Jesus are not the true.

God and Jesus of the Bible

Orson Hyde, the Mormon Apostle said, "We say it was Jesus Christ who was married in the marriage of Cana of Galilee" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, page 80).

Brigham Young, said, "When the Virgin Mary conceived the Child Jesus ... He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is His father? He is the first of the human family" (Journal of Discourses, pages 50-51).

Compare this with the Word of God, "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).

Mormons teach that Jesus Christ suffered for sin in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweat "as it were" great drops of blood. Mormons totally avoid the Biblical teaching of Christ's atonement for sin which was accomplished on the Cross.

Note the following quote from, "What Mormons Think of Christ" (LDS publication, pages 32-34):

"Christians speak often of the blood of Christ and its cleansing power. Much is believed and taught on this subject, however, it is utter nonsense and so palpably false that to believe it is to lose one's salvation."

It goes further to say that salvation is "conditional on faith, and repentance, and baptism and keeping the commands of God."

I would like to add, yes, it is very true that Christians do speak much of the blood of Christ. Note the emphasis the Bible places on the blood of Christ:

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

"How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Hebrew 9:14).

"And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood" (Revelations 1:5).

The ejection of this Biblical truth by the LDS church shows again it is not a Christian church.

Note that in the following verses the Bible says salvation, which is forgiveness of sin and receiving of eternal life, is a gift of God, and it is not obtained by "works":

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

"But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Romans 4:5).

I am aware that the L.D.S church has several definitions of salvation and several degrees of glory. A good discussion of the problem is found on the Internet at http:CastYourNet.com/LDS-Shock.

The real Jesus Christ is the "only begotten of the Father." He is not one of many sons and certainly not the brother of Satan as the following Scriptures clearly state:

John 1:18, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him."

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

John 3:18, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Hebrews 1:5, "For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?"

1 John 4:9, "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him."

Jesus Christ of the Bible is God Incarnate in Man

John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

John 1:14, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

John 10:30 "I and my Father are one." Jesus claimed to be one with the Father.

In John 14:9, Jesus said to see him is to see the Father.

In John 8:25, 56-59, 18:6,8 Jesus used the Jehovistic "I AM," identifying Himself as God.

In Matthew 22:42-45, Jesus claimed to be the Old Testament "Adonai."

In Mark 2:5-7, Jesus forgave sin, a prerogative belonging only to God.

In Matthew 14:33; 28:9; and John 20:28-29, Jesus asserted Himself as God by allowing men to worship Him.

John 1:3 states that Jesus is the Creator, and Genesis 1:1 states that God was the Creator.

Only those who believe in the real Biblical God and Jesus Christ have the right to use the name "Christian." The Mormon prophets historically have openly ridiculed those who believe in the God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit that the Bible reveals.

One question that I would ask all Mormons is this: "If I accept you as a Christian, will you accept me as a Mormon?" Would you accept me as a Mormon if I reject Joseph Smith and all the LDS prophets as being prophets of God. If I do not believe in the Book of Mormon or the LDS Scriptures, baptisms for the dead, the temple endowments, the LDS gospel, would you accept me as a Mormon? The answer is obviously, you would not. In like manner, when Mormonism denies the Bible and every Christian doctrine do you think that Biblical Christians should accept Mormons as Christians? Again the answer is very obvious, no we will not. You cannot legitimately claim to be Christians when you refuse to accept what the Bible teaches and what a true Christian believes.

................

Torturing Women detained by ICE ( Immigration and Customs Enforcement ) : "It was very hard for me as a young 24-year-old woman to see the great inhumane treatment that such detention centers practice. Many people who were not able to speak English were treated differently by the officers; some were neglected and ignored

2012-01-09T15:29:00.002-05:00

Imprisoning and Deporting People for Private Business - Some of them are American Citizens and some inmates are forgotten while making profits for Shark Entrepreneurs related to Republicans.

This Establishment of Jailer Businessmen gives a lot of Money for the Political Campaigns of Great Racists like Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona, former State Senator Russell Pearce ( already recalled ! ) and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Color Lines - News for Action
What If Nobody Told You Your Daughter Had Been Mistakenly Deported?
[Reader Forum]
by Channing Kennedy
Monday, January 9 2012

What If Nobody Told You Your Daughter Had Been Mistakenly Deported? [Reader Forum]

Some excerpts :

I have been in detention in Florida at the Broward Transitional Center In Pompano beach; it was a bitter experience. You are treated very inhumanely; if you are sick, you must fill out a request to see the doctor (it can take up to a week to see the doctor). A lot of the women detained suffered from excessive bleeding during their periods; some had stopped menstruating (a sign of psychological stress). There was an inmate who had tried to commit suicide; the doctor placed her under surveillance for one day and then released her back into the regular population. She was always drugged up with medication and spent the entire day in bed.

It was very hard for me as a young 24-year-old woman to see the great inhumane treatment that such detention centers practice. Many people who were not able to speak English were treated differently by the officers; some were neglected and ignored. There was an issue with bed bugs; a lot of women developed rashes. Once again, if you felt sick you would have to wait a week, which by then you will either feel better or worse. I remember always feeling watched over, even in my sleep. I had very bad headaches, always had nightmares. When we had to be counted around 2:00 AM, the officers will come in the cells yelling and waking us up. Sometimes they will come in at any given time in the wee hours of the night and will take some detainees, and we never saw them again. I didn’t know where they were taking them to and neither did they. It was scary to think that you could not even sleep due to being afraid and always thinking ” will I be taken away next?” “where will they take me to” …

I met great women in detention; their stories will forever be engraved in my heart. These women were undocumented, but they were all great souls. A lot of them ended up there due to lack of drivers licences. Many of them like myself had no criminal records yet still forced to be detained under “a threat to society” or “terrorism.” In the detention center where I was, we were supposed to have “Arts and Crafts” every other day; I never attended any of them - since I never witnessed such classes. The food at commissary was very unhealthy; milk had to be sipped quick since we had no fridge to store it. When we had a meeting with one of ICE’s top directors of the center we asked if we can please have healthier choices at commissary. We felt that since we had to pay for the food ourselves we might as well demand fruits and vegetables. The answer we received from him was: “Ladies, I did a lot regarding the food we provide you with - It was my idea to have salt and pepper provided during lunch and dinner meals” … .

..........

Did the hearing officer, the case worker, the jailers, even the cops who arrested this Black girl, Age 14, all willfully blind themselves to the fact that this was clearly and obviously an American girl and not a Colombian national ?

2012-01-07T15:53:00.001-05:00

Why was she speaking perfect colloquial English and had absolutely no clue about any Spanish Word ?? - Did the blackness of this 14 year old girl weigh against her in the deportation procedures ?? - Is this a case of "Racial Profiling" going wild ?? - What about a 14 year old girl that is white, blond and blue eyed ??

Is ICE responsible for the pregnancy and possible moral sinking of this little girl of age 14 ?? - It is reported that the girl appeared on facebook smoking marihuana on the laps of men in Colombia, and that way she was found by a friend that saw her photo !

The league of Ordinary Gentlemen
She Was An American Girl, Raised On Promises (Of Due Process)
January 5, 2012

by Burt Likko
Burt Likko is the pseudonym of an attorney in Southern California. He is sometimes known as the "Transplanted Lawyer" in commemoration of a two-year sojourn in East Tennessee which was something of a transformative life experience. His interests include politics and public policy, Constitutional law with a focus on the separation of church and state.

She Was An American Girl, Raised On Promises (Of Due Process)

Some excerpts :

Jakadrian Turner was 14 years old in November of 2010 when, despondent over her parents’ divorce and the recent death of her grandfather, she ran away from her home in Dallas, Texas. Somehow, she made her way to Houston, where she was arrested on suspicion of theft, and gave a fake name to the police.

Only she was fantastically unlucky in her choice of fake names.

The name she gave showed up as a woman who had outstanding warrants and was on a list for referral to immigration authorities as an illegal alien. So Jakadrian was transferred from the Houston Police Department to Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who took her fingerprints. Armed with its own list of names and identities, the information given it by the Houston cops, and the fingerprints they took of their detainee, ICE determined that indeed the young woman in their custody was the person she had claimed to be upon her arrest by the Houston Police.

So, in April of 2011, ICE proceeded to deport a 14-year-old American citizen, who spoke no Spanish but apparently spoke excellent colloquial English, to Colombia. It took her grandmother and the Dallas Police nearly a year of searching to find her. Jakadrian was issued a work card by the Colombian government, and has been working as a house cleaner ever since her arrival in (I assume) Bogota.

................

Young Ms. Turner’s horrifying story is not unique, although her case stands out for an astonishing obliviousness on the part of ICE — a Black girl who spoke excellent English and no Spanish was somehow mistaken for a Colombian national, after her fingerprints didn’t match up with the suspect they were looking for and (presumably) she denied her identity. About 2,000 U.S. citizens a year get deported, and about 4,000, or 1%, of the people in ICE detention are United States citizens.

We have due process of law in our Constitution to prevent exactly this sort of thing from happening. So what happened here? Was there no hearing? Did the hearing officer, the case worker, the jailers, even the cops who arrested this girl, all willfully blind himself to the fact that this was clearly and obviously an American girl and not a Colombian national? Maybe she was no angel — she got arrested for suspected theft, after all; but the fact that this was a young Black girl who seemed to be heading towards a life of petty crime is no excuse — that troubled young Black girl is a U.S. citizen. That fact ought to matter but apparently didn’t

This adds an extra level of perniciousness to state-level “anti-illegal immigrant” laws with mandatory referral provisions, like those recently adopted in Arizona and Alabama.

Mistakes will be made sometimes, I know. But 2,000 citizens wrongfully deported every year seems like more than we ought to be willing to tolerate. How much easier would it be to make a similar sort of mistake when the detainee is Latino, and does have good Spanish, maybe even better Spanish than English? I see lots of people I presume to be U.S. citizens who match that description, nearly every time I go to court.

I’ve got a simple word to describe what I think of the government deporting a citizen — that’s bullshit. Let this story serve as a caution to all those eager to conscript local law enforcement to be deputy ICE agents, and let this story serve as a caution to those who would urge stiffer enforcement of immigration laws. It’s not enough to “enforce the laws we have.” When we do that, we do terrible things to our own people — we do terrible things to ourselves.

..............

POLITICO.COM : Rick Santorum was greeted by a man who held up the arms of two women and screamed, “I’m a polygamist and I’m here with two girls! Why do you hate me? Do you want to come into my bedroom?” - Santorum is sparring with Mad Unruly Crowds

2012-01-07T12:29:00.001-05:00

.
My Comment :

Santorum has been very brave and fearless, also polite, civil, soft, calmed, tranquil, before big wild crowds of super right wing mad and hostile People in New Hampshire. Rick Santorum is doing his best effort to civilize and educate Republicans into moderation, the crowds are filled with anger, wrath, fury and craziness.

POLITICO.COM
Rick Santorum spars with growing New Hampshire crowds
By DAVID CATANESE
Januarey 6, 2012

Rick Santorum spars with growing New Hampshire crowds

Some excerpts :

At two stops Friday, the size of his audiences were deemed too large for the selected venue by local fire marshals. In one case, at a restaurant here, the situation prompted the campaign to move the town hall outside into a parking lot, leaving potential supporters miffed and uncomfortable.

“They should’ve just counted 100 people at the door instead of having this circus,” complained one woman, as Santorum’s staff ordered hundreds of attendees out into the open cold.

As the temperature dropped, tempers flared.

Santorum was instantly swarmed by throngs of media, as well as chanting Ron Paul supporters, Occupy Wall Street protesters and members of a college group called Students For A Sensible Drug Policy, who held up signs that read “Legalize Marijuana” and “Google Santorum.”

As Santorum fought his way to the center of the parking lot in search of hands to shake, he was instead greeted by a man who held up the arms of two women and screamed, “I’m a polygamist and I’m here with two girls! Why do you hate me? Do you want to come into my bedroom?”

While a smattering of Santorum supporters attempted to lighten the supercharged atmosphere with cheers of “Rick, Rick, Rick,” a Paul supporter lead onlookers in chants of “Dick, Dick, Dick.”

During the hour-long event — one of the shorter he’s had — Santorum used no microphone, rejected the offer of a bullhorn and was consistently jeered and mocked by onlookers and political tourists.

..............

A bleary-eyed Michael Biundo, Santorum’s campaign manager, attempted to spin the raucous scene into positive energy as he looked on from a distance.

“The crowds grew bigger than expected,” he said. “This is New Hampshire, though — I think they like the excitement around it.”

Not all of them did.

At an earlier event in Keene, Santorum was booed for his position on gay rights, shouted down by an Occupy Wall Street supporter and confronted several times about his opposition to President Obama’s healthcare law.

A basement room in the library was so crowded police interrupted the former Pennsylvania senator’s opening remarks to remove people in the aisles.

While nothing like the fracas in Manchester, it readily became apparent that many who showed up were there to listen and possibly engage — but ultimately disagree.

.............

VIDEO, Democracy Now, Jacqueline Stevens : professor of political science at Northwestern University, deportation of U.S. citizen Jakadrien Turner - Research on thousands of U. S. Citizens deported

2012-01-06T15:00:00.001-05:00

And other U. S. Citizens spend up to a year in jail, detentions by ICE ( U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ) - These deportations involve "Racial Profiling" ....

Uploaded by democracynow on Jan 6, 2012

www.democracynow.org — Democracy Now! interviews Jacqueline Stevens, professor in the political science department at Northwestern University. She recently published an exhaustive report on U.S. citizens who have been detained and deported. She discusses the case of Dallas teenager Jakadrien Turner who was deported to Colombia, despite the fact that she is a U.S. citizen and speaks no Spanish.

Jacqueline Stevens on deportation of U.S. citizen Jakadrien Turner and thousands of others

***********************************

A now-15-year-old teen girl, U.S. citizen with no knowledge of Spanish and no Latino Ancestors deported to Colombia, several months ago. - Family desperate : Facebook photos in Colombia, pregnant, sitting on men's laps smoking marijuana, partying with men

2012-01-05T17:43:00.000-05:00

.
WYFF4.COM
Family Demands Answers After Texas Teen Mistakenly Deported To Colombia
By the CNN Wire Staff
January 5, 2012

Family Demands Answers After Texas Teen Mistakenly Deported To Colombia

Some excerpts :

How Jakadrien got to Colombia is a mystery to the family. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency maintains she was arrested in Houston for theft and told them she was an adult from Colombia.

...............

He says the immigration agency took Jakadrien's fingerprints but failed to match them to the name she gave. The name matched a woman wanted by Interpol, Jackson says, so they "shipped her on through."

.............

Then, Jakadrien's Facebook page suddenly said she was in Colombia. The family later learned she had been arrested in Houston for shoplifting, but they say they had no idea how she wound up in the South American country after the arrest.

...........

The family's concerns grew when the detective told them that Jakadrien is pregnant, her mother said.

Johnisa Turner said she believes her daughter was coerced along the way, with someone promising her something that led her to maintain a fake story about who she is.

Jackson says he believes something more sinister is going on.

"There has to be something behind this 15-year-old girl ending up in Colombia, besides the fact that ICE dropped the ball," he said. "Of all the nicknames ... to pick one that's of Latino descent, for that to be a name that sticks and gets you deported, that doesn't make sense."

Pictures of Jakadrien in Colombia showed her sitting on men's laps smoking marijuana, her grandmother said. But Jakadrien, she said, seemed to be reaching out for help, listing on Facebook the names of everyone at parties perhaps so she could be traced.

Jackson says he doesn't believe Jakadrien was trying to fake her way out of the country by using the false name throughout the process.

"I don't buy that she had the wherewithal to be able to bamboozle the government," Jackson says. "You know, kids are scared when they get around authorities. ... To think that you could bamboozle them to create a new identity, it just doesn't make sense."

...........

VIDEO : Mike Papantonio, Ed Schultz - Romney's Iowa Victory Won't Save Doomed Campaign - The Ku Klux Klan bragged of having Ron Paul as one of them - Great Victory for Obama in the Iowa Republican Caucuses

2012-01-05T15:09:00.000-05:00

.
93% of the People that voted in Iowa are White : They do not represent America.

Uploaded by golefttv on Jan 4, 2012

Mike Papantonio and Ed Schultz dissect Tuesday's GOP caucus in Iowa, and ponder where, exactly, Mitt Romney's money is coming from.

Papantonio: Romney's Iowa Victory Won't Save Doomed Campaign

*******************************

I do not agree with the ideas of Rick Santorum but he looks like a wonderful good neighbor. Like the neighbor of Homer Simpson that is called Ned Flanders. Who is Ned Flanders ?? - A Bible-believing, sincere-to-a-fault Christian

2012-01-04T13:39:00.002-05:00

Simpsons Cartoon : Ned Flanders is always preaching the Gospel and giving good example to the alcoholic and misbehaved Homer Simpson.

Ned is :

- Imminently tolerable of his neighbor Homer, who hates him for his goodness

- Supernaturally patient

- Committed to sharing and helping

- Perhaps the only Galatians 5:22-23 Christian ever on American TV

Ned has Christ-like grace and patience and Homer Simpson is insensitive and cruel.

Ned tolerated Homer's meddling while he tried to hook Ned up with a Christian country singer who looked suspiciously like Amy Grant.

Ned was married to Maude Flanders. She fell over the ledge of a stadium after she was hit by a free t-shirt Homer shot out of a small hand-held canon during a NASCAR race. Ned Flanders is a widower with two sons, also very Christian.

The Simpsons Cartoon can not be more American.

And Ned Flanders will always vote for the Republicans and Tea Party.

So Rick Santorum is a very nice guy and a better neighbor than the arrogant and rich Mitt Romney.

Vicente Duque

......

POLITICO.COM : Republicans are well on their way to answering a first-rate political opportunity with a second-rate presidential nominee. - National Review editor quoted one conservative lamenting: “We don’t have our A team on the field”

2012-01-03T14:43:00.000-05:00

.
POLITICO.COM
Iowa's field of mediocrities
By JOHN F. HARRIS and ALEXANDER BURNS
January 3, 2012

Iowa's field of mediocrities

Some excerpts :

Here’s what does not get said as often: This big moment on history’s stage is being filled by politicians who so far have looked way too small for the occasion.

..............

The two main incentives in politics are publicity and money — and there is plenty of both to be had for running for president and making waves, usually through saying provocative things. Gingrich and Bachmann, even if they don’t become the nominee, are in better position to lead ideological movements and put themselves in demand as commentators because of their presidential bids.

...................

But these candidates running for reasons of self-interest rather than because anyone actually expects them to win tend to divert attention from the actual purpose of a nominating process: to test the seriousness of people who might actually be president.

.............

The predominant sense in the party, however, is that Republicans are well on their way to

answering a first-rate political opportunity with a second-rate presidential nominee.

As National Review editor Rich Lowry quoted one conservative lamenting: “We don’t have our A team on the field.”

..............

“This would be a very different race had Jeb Bush, Mitch Daniels, Chris Christie or Haley Barbour decided to run for President. Frankly, I think any of them could defeat the current field,” said Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, a former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

“The real division in the GOP these days is not between moderates and conservatives. It is between pragmatists and ideologues. That same division plays itself out almost every day in the House and Senate GOP Conferences,” Cole continued. “The next GOP president will be forced to govern as a conservative to maintain the support of the GOP rank and file and its caucuses in both the House and Senate. Anyone who thinks we are going to nominate an Eisenhower, Nixon or Ford is out of touch with the GOP electorate. And any GOP politician who believes he can govern from the White House as anything other than a conservative is delusional.”

And besides, Rollins noted: “We have a great bench – some of the governors, some of the new congressional members, they obviously chose not to run. If Romney doesn’t win, it’s a whole different ballgame.”

..........

VIDEO, Keith Olbermann shows a Video of Bill O'Reilly in which Bill is cruel and despot, insane dictator and madman - Bill arrogant bastard, selfish aggressive narcissist - Benito Mussolini and Pinochet

2012-01-02T20:55:00.001-05:00

.
A Body Language Expert analyzes the Brutal Madman and Narcissist inside Bill O'Reilly and how he really is.

BIll "Do It Live!" O'Reilly, And The Body Language Expert - Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Uploaded by MiniRtist on Jan 1, 2012

BIll "Do It Live!" O'Reilly, And The Body Language Expert - Countdown with Keith Olbermann

***********************************

The 2012 Iowa Caucuses are scheduled to take place on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 - There are 99 counties in Iowa and thus 99 conventions. Since 1972, the Iowa caucuses have been the first major electoral event of the nominating process for President of the United States

2012-01-01T13:18:00.003-05:00

If you can understand this process then you are a genius, because this is the most cumbersome, awkward and difficult to manage process you can imagine, and it is very indirect or inefficient Democracy. - Democracy should be easier to understand and apply !

From Wikipedia :

In the Republican caucuses, each voter officially casts his or her vote by secret ballot. Voters are presented blank sheets of paper with no candidate names on them.[6] After listening to some campaigning for each candidate by caucus participants, they write their choices down and the Republican Party of Iowa tabulates the results at each precinct and transmits them to the media.[7] In 2008, some precincts used a show of hands [8] or preprinted ballots.[9] The non-binding results are tabulated and reported to the state party, which releases the results to the media. Delegates from the precinct caucuses go on to the county conventions, which choose delegates to the district conventions, which in turn selects delegates to the Iowa State Convention. Thus, it is the Republican Iowa State Convention, not the precinct caucuses, which selects the ultimate delegates from Iowa to the Republican National Convention. All delegates are officially unbound from the results of the precinct caucus, although media organizations either estimate delegate numbers by estimating county convention results or simply divide them proportionally.

Republican Party Iowa Caucuses

****************************

Have a Happy New Year 2012. I am super optimistic that President Obama is going to win by a Landslide in November. - Liberal and Democratic Friends : Please Don't be afraid of the U. S. Supreme Court and its Conservative Judicial Activism

2011-12-31T12:48:00.002-05:00

Conservative Legislation from the bench would become soon irrelevant because of political developments, economic suffering in the Southern States in question, etc ... These are the lasts kicks of the drowning man, the last gasps of the American Civil War - I am not so sure of this paragraph of mine, perhaps the kicks will continue and the gasps of the moribund approaching death may last for hours, days, weeks, months or centuries ( in the case of the American Civil War )

No need to turn off the oxygen of the patient - Just apply the Chinese Philosophy of the Tao : the "Will of Heaven" will prevail ( this is different from the "Divine Providence" in Western Culture ).

I apply Chinese Philosophy again : Dragons are messengers from Heaven, they are good and will protect us.

*****************

About the U. S. Supreme Court :

I prefer slow courts that do not give certioraris to everybody and his aunt. Precipitation is characteristic of Lemmings, arctic rodents in Norway that jump to the sea from cliffs.

The court could have sent back SB 1070 for "en banc" consideration ( "the entire bench" : 11 judges, although the ninth circuit has 29 judges ), we are talking of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that stopped SB 1070. And the same for the eleventh Circuit Court and others that are processing the Immigration Chaos and Anarchy.

That way the Supreme Court gets the advice and opinion of the best Legal Experts in America. And waits for more "Amicus Briefs" and other Opinions from Professors of Law and Law Experts.

There is nothing wrong in waiting for more expertise and jurisprudence. This also apply to the two other "Hot Potatoes" and "Ticking Bombs" of Health Care Overhaul and Texas Gerrymandering.

The U. S. Supreme Court is becoming "Easy Trigger" and overtly "Eager spoon"....

That way the U. S. Congress will continue in Gridlock and the Supreme Court will legislate from the bench. Conservative Judicial Activism of course.

But don't worry, good dragons are coming from China. ( Dragons are always good ! )

Vicente Duque

New York Times : Paul Krugman : Anti-Keynesian ideologues in Europe forced Greece and Ireland into strong austerity, they caused big depressions in both countries, they ended up proving Keynes right all over again

2011-12-30T16:39:00.001-05:00

"“The boom, not the slump, is the right time for austerity at the Treasury.” So declared John Maynard Keynes in 1937, even as F.D.R. was about to prove him right by trying to balance the budget too soon, sending the United States economy — which had been steadily recovering up to that point — into a severe recession. Slashing government spending in a depressed economy depresses the economy further; austerity should wait until a strong recovery is well under way".

New York Times
Keynes Was Right
By PAUL KRUGMAN
December 29, 2011

Keynes Was Right

Some excerpts :

In declaring Keynesian economics vindicated I am, of course, at odds with conventional wisdom. In Washington, in particular, the failure of the Obama stimulus package to produce an employment boom is generally seen as having proved that government spending can’t create jobs. But those of us who did the math realized, right from the beginning, that the Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (more than a third of which, by the way, took the relatively ineffective form of tax cuts) was much too small given the depth of the slump. And we also predicted the resulting political backlash.

So the real test of Keynesian economics hasn’t come from the half-hearted efforts of the U.S. federal government to boost the economy, which were largely offset by cuts at the state and local levels. It has, instead, come from European nations like Greece and Ireland that had to impose savage fiscal austerity as a condition for receiving emergency loans — and have suffered Depression-level economic slumps, with real G.D.P. in both countries down by double digits.

.............

Yet the insistence on immediate spending cuts continued to dominate the political landscape, with malign effects on the U.S. economy. True, there weren’t major new austerity measures at the federal level, but there was a lot of “passive” austerity as the Obama stimulus faded out and cash-strapped state and local governments continued to cut.

.............

The bottom line is that 2011 was a year in which our political elite obsessed over short-term deficits that aren’t actually a problem and, in the process, made the real problem — a depressed economy and mass unemployment — worse.

The good news, such as it is, is that President Obama has finally gone back to fighting against premature austerity — and he seems to be winning the political battle. And one of these years we might actually end up taking Keynes’s advice, which is every bit as valid now as it was 75 years ago.

...........

Salon.com : "With the possible exception of Mitt Romney, you would not hire a Republican Candidate to run a WalMart — a difficult job requiring mastery of a million details and an ability to manage people

2011-12-29T10:50:00.000-05:00

"Of course, if you did hire Romney, you might wake up to find he’d fired all the employees, spun off the grocery operation, and sold the building to Dollar General for a fraction of its value and a player to be named later"

Mitt Romney's strategy is to paint President Obama as a dangerous communist and create a lot of Fear and Pessimism out of a slow jobs recovery, this unemployment is the result of several years of Republican Recklessnes in managing the Economy :

Salon.com
The real problem in Iowa
The issue isn't the indecisiveness of the caucus voters. It's the terrible GOP field
By Paul Ryan
Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The real problem in Iowa

Some excerpts :

In short, [ according to Romney ] Obama’s a communist. And the evidence for this preposterous claim? Certainly nothing the president has ever said or done. Obama favors a return to Clinton-era tax rates, a time of balanced budgets and growing prosperity. A multimillionaire like Romney would find his marginal tax rate on income over $1 million had risen from 35 to 39.6 percent. I believe he can afford it. True, Obama’s healthcare reform is mildly redistributive, but then so is Romney’s Massachusetts insurance plan it so closely resembles.

For that matter, Social Security’s mildly progressive too. But then candidate Romney wants to privatize that. And, oh yeah, bomb Iran. Or he pretends to believe these things, anyway, and none too convincingly. Hence, the confusion we observe.

The GOP’s larger problem is that following upon the 2008 financial crisis, Barack Obama’s election stunned and frightened a significant fraction of the GOP base. Psychologists call it “projection,” the habit of attributing one’s own darkest motives and fears to others. Rather than govern, Republican leaders went with it.

..........

VIDEO : Rachel Maddow proves beyond any doubt that Ron Paul is a Super Racist - She uses many documents written by Ron Paul - The Rachel Maddow Show: Racism Charge Haunts Ron Paul - Many new documents are unearthed

2011-12-28T17:37:00.001-05:00

New Documents recently found by researchers show that Ron Paul is a master of Bigotry, Prejudice, Hatred and Racism. You can have no doubt after watching this video.

Uploaded by Licentiathe8th on Dec 28, 2011

Dec 22, 2011: Rachel Maddow reviews the long history of controversy over the racism expressed in Ron Paul newsletters and inconsistencies in how Paul has responded to questions on the matter.

The Rachel Maddow Show: Racism Charge Haunts Ron Paul

***************************************

...............

Two VIDEOs, Stephen King talks about JFK Assassination and changing the past - He always wanted to write this novel, but the World was too fresh to see the implications of this murder - Trailer to Promote Stephen King's upcoming Novel 11/22/63

2011-12-28T15:26:00.000-05:00

.

Uploaded by SimonSchusterVideos on Sep 26, 2011

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back?

Stephen King reveals his novel 11/22/63

*******************************

Trailer to Promote Stephen King's upcoming Novel 11/22/63

Uploaded by bnasty71 on Aug 14, 2011

Stephen King's upcoming novel 11/22/63 hits shelves on 11/8/11

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas; President Kennedy died; and the world changed. If you had the chance to change history, would you? Would the consequences be worth it?

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students — a gruesome, harrowing first-person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning's father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake's friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane — and insanely possible — mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake's new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake's life — a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time

Trailer to Promote Stephen King's upcoming Novel 11/22/63

*******************************

Mike Atencio said about his Veteran Brother Ernest Murdered by Joe Arpaio's Goons : Ernest was "a military vet, proud of his country. He also described his brother as having "special needs," and said his brother's medication for his illness was "not balanced" at the time he was arrested

2011-12-28T10:45:00.000-05:00

.
Phoenix New Times
Feathered Bastard
Joe Arpaio and MCSO "Murdered" Ernest "Marty" Atencio, Says Family
By Stephen Lemons
Sunday December 18, 2011

Joe Arpaio and MCSO "Murdered" Ernest "Marty" Atencio, Says Family

Some excerpts :

He wants the world to know that his brother was "the most patriotic guy on the planet," a military vet, proud of his country. He also described his brother as having "special needs," and said his brother's medication for his illness was "not balanced" at the time he was arrested.

The MCSO had interacted with Atencio's brother on minor violations in the past, and should have had record of his problems. That's assuming they cared to check.

Atencio pointed the finger at the current political climate in Arizona, also noting Arpaio's pattern of racial discrimination as detailed in the recent report from the U.S. Department of Justice.

In the eyes of "Arpaio and his staff," his brother was, "just another [Hispanic]," according to Atencio.

"But not to the city of Phoenix," said Atencio, his voice breaking. "To the city of Phoenix, he was a fine American Latino."

.........

VIDEO : One more Hate Murder by Sheriff Joe Arpaio of a sick Latino Man in Arizona : Toxicology Reports say that the murdered man had no drugs or alcohol in his blood. - Sheriff Joe Arpaio releases video of Ernest Atencio subdued by MCSO deputies

2011-12-28T10:11:00.004-05:00

.
The Police Murder of a 44-year-old Gulf War veteran that was in a sick condition but without any drugs according to the autopsy. These murders of Latinos have become routine in Arizona. This is not the first Latino Veteran that is murdered by State or Government Agents :

When will these legal Police Murders cease ??

Video from inside the 4th Avenue Jail shows deputies subduing Ernest "Marty" Atencio. He is then brought to a safe cell and stripped naked but remained unresponsive after being left alone. That inmate ultimately ended up on life support and died. Atencio's family Attorney Mike Manning says Ernest suffers from bipolar disorder and was not on his medication. Doctors believe Atencio was tased 4 to 6 times.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio releases video of Ernest Atencio subdued by MCSO deputies

*********************

Boston Globe Newspaper about Mitt : "The dog-on-the-roof-of-the-car story", the paper revealed that Romney once strapped his Irish setter on the roof of his station wagon for a 12-hour road trip

2011-12-27T12:49:00.000-05:00

This is very repulsive and disgusting

Repugnant and Loathsome !

POLITICO.COM
Boston Globe wants the Mitt Romney franchise
By DYLAN BYERS
December 26, 2011

Boston Globe wants the Mitt Romney franchise

Some excerpts :

The Globe, which is owned by The New York Times, hasn't faced the kind of deep editorial cuts the Tribune did, and it has kept most of its stars, even luring back Glen Johnson from The Associated Press, where he led the wire's Romney coverage in 2008.

That is not to say it hasn’t had its struggles. The Globe nearly closed in 2009, before its largest union agreed to take pay cuts and contract modifications.

But it will face tough challenges, nevertheless. In addition to the basic challenges of competing with the national media, the Globe is further burdened by the fact that it has already written the Romney story.

“You can only break the dog-on-the-roof-of-the-car story once,” a former Globe reporter told POLITICO, referring to the fourth installment of “The Making,” in which the paper revealed that Romney had once strapped his Irish setter on the roof of his station wagon for a 12-hour road trip — an anecdote that Times columnist Gail Collins makes a point of mentioning every time she writes about Romney.

In recent weeks, the Times, the Post and others have focused on Romney’s work at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he co-founded in Boston. But the groundwork for many of those stories was laid by the Globe’s 2007 series.

“Every time it seems that there is this new set of things, it’s still built off a body of biographical work that the Globe laid a long time ago, when he wasn’t the presumptive nominee,” said a reporter who has covered Romney.

.............

VIDEO, Ed Schultz and Dr James Peterson, Professor of English, Lehigh University, criticize Ron Paul for his Racism, AntiSemitism, Homophobia, Sexism, expressed in many of his signed News Letters - Ron Paul denies now to have read or known about them

2011-12-26T12:26:00.002-05:00

Ron Paul could win Iowa Republican Primary. And he denies knowing about his many signed News Letters of many years. And he got support from White Supremacist Groups in the Past.

Ed Schultz - Racism, Antisemitism... Ron Paul (24-Dec-11) ( POLITICS, RACE, SOCIETY series )

************************

.....

Mitt and Newt as Presidents of the USA : They want to employ the same Bush guys that fooled the nation into the Iraq War - Lessons learned for Mitt, plus Newt, plus GOP candidates : NONE - Warmongering against Iran

2011-12-24T03:29:00.001-05:00

.
The Party of Jingoism :

Iraq War : "One trillion dollars later, how naive the words of Glenn Hubbard, President Bush's top economic adviser: "The costs of any military intervention would be very small." Hubbard today is Romney's top economic adviser".

It seems that the Republican Candidates Mitt and Newt learned no lessons from the Iraq War. Both preach Jingoism, Militarism and War against Iran. This will be the same Foreign Policy of George W. Bush for the Middle East and near Asia.

Huffington Post
Returning Home From Iraq: Lessons Learned.
December 23, 2011

By Ned Lamont
By Ned Lamont

Ned Lamont was the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Connecticut in 2006. He founded his own company, Lamont Digital Systems, in 1984, and is a graduate of both Harvard and the Yale School of Management. He spent eight years in local government, chaired the state investment advisory council, and worked on policy with the Brookings Institution.

Ned was a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics in Spring 2007 and is currently a board member at the Progressive States Network.

Returning Home From Iraq: Lessons Learned

Some excerpts :

Lesson # 3: Beware of unintended consequences.

These same neo cons are now pressing for a preemptive attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, that anything short of war is 'appeasement.' The Iraq war was America's strategic gift to the Iranian regime. We replaced an anti Iranian counterweight that had shown its willingness to challenge Iran when threatened and to dampen its dangerous ambitions. America's war in Iraq replaced an anti Iranian Hussein regime with the Maliki regime which enjoys playing footsie with the Iranian mullahs. If the war was fought to stabilize the Middle East, to enhance our own security as well as the security of our ally Israel, the war was a strategic failure from the start, strengthening Iran's position and limiting our options, making the region more dangerous.

Lesson # 4: Unintended consequences II:

Rather than the opening shot in a pro democracy, modernizing Arab Spring, the Iraq war nine years later has resulted in a more sectarian, less pluralistic Iraqi regime which started prosecuting and arresting its Sunni political leaders about 24 hours after the last of the American troops headed home. Newt Romney's response: more American troops in Iraq as far as the eye can see.

Lesson # 5: Wars do not pay for themselves.

One trillion dollars later, how naïve the words of Glenn Hubbard, President Bush's top economic adviser: "The costs of any military intervention would be very small." Hubbard today is Romney's top economic adviser. To those who argued the long term economic benefits to America, read the headline in the Financial Times: Iraq's economic spoils go to nations that shunned the war,' including China from whom we borrowed the money to fight the war .

..........

VIDEO, Arizona State University ( AZU ) Professor of Constitutional Law Paul Bender says that SB 1070 may be contested for years in the Supreme Court even if this court decides in favor of Arizona during 2012

2011-12-21T16:13:00.003-05:00

This is going to drag for years because the Supreme Court may consider it unconstitutional after implementation, even if the Supreme Court reverses the decision of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before June of 2012.

The Supreme Court may say "let's see how it works", if there are many cases of "Racial Profiling" and "Violation of Civil Rights" of Legal U. S. Citizens, then the Supreme Court may decide against Arizona in 2013 or later.

Once the statute SB 1070 goes into effect new constitutional questions may arise that sink SB 1070 and the Political Objectives of Governor Jan Brewer and Russell Pearce ( the original author of SB 1070 )

Professor Paul Bender recently appeared on ‘Horizon’ on PBS-TV (Channel 8) to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear the case on SB1070, Arizona’s immigration law. Bender was interviewed by Jóse Cárdenas, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Arizona State University, who was the guest host for the Dec. 12 show.

Bender teaches U.S. and Arizona constitutional law , has argued more than 20 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and actively participates in constitutional litigation in federal and state courts.

Supreme Court Accepts SB 1070 Case

December 12, 2011
ASU Law Professor Paul Bender discusses the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to take a case challenging the constitutionality of Arizona's immigration law.

VIDEO, Rachel Maddow and Representative Barney Frank ( Democrat, Massachusetts ) explain why the Speaker of the House John Boehner is so bad at his job, totally lacks leadership among House Republicans, the Speaker is dominated by inexperienced GOP Freshmen

2011-12-20T19:29:00.002-05:00

.
The incompetent House Speaker :

John Boehner does not posses the necessary ability, skill, etc. to do or carry out such a difficult task : to be a good leader as House Speaker, to achieve good bills, projects, legislation, to reach compromise with President Obama and the Democrats.

John Boehner is a total failure as Speaker and it is highly probable that the common American pays more taxes starting on January 1, 2012, thanks to the incompetence of John Boehner, a guy that seems to lack character and that wastes the time of the U. S. House of Representatives in the most stupid bills and projects that always fail to be approved or completed.

John Boehner is a total flip-flopper and a weathervane or weathercock that changes direction with the wind every day. His job is to be an obstacle to the President of the United States and in that ugly partisanship Boehner does great harm to the American Economy.

Uploaded by politicalarticles on Dec 20, 2011

Incompetent Drunk: The John Boehner is 'Bad at His Job' Hypothesis

POLITICO.COM : Obama in confrontation with House Republicans over the payroll tax cut, Obama’s chief year-end policy initiative. The public is with the Democrats - The showdown is working for (Democrats) and the Republicans are divided, - On payroll tax cut Obama digs in

2011-12-20T14:42:00.002-05:00

.

Obama is winning, he should not blink :

House Republicans are blocking for now an extension to the payroll tax cut. This tax break expires on December 31, 2011.

There are clear signs that Obama and his Democratic allies are preparing a tougher tack when it comes to House Speaker John Boehner’s 11th-hour decision to scuttle a bipartisan Senate deal to extend a popular payroll tax holiday for another two months.

The House rejected on Monday December 20, a Senate-brokered compromise to extend a tax cut for working Americans and sent the measure to a conference committee for negotiations.

"On the question of who is trying to protect the middle class. Fifty percent say they trust Obama on the issue while 35 percent favor Republicans — a shift from last month, when voters were more evenly split on the matter".

POLITICO.COM
On payroll tax cut Obama digs in
By CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN and GLENN THRUSH
December 20, 2011

On payroll tax cut, Obama digs in

Some excerpts :

The difference this time, Democrats say, is that Republicans have split down the middle on the extension, thanks to a broadly bipartisan deal blessed last weekend by Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and nearly every member of the Senate. And that has given Democrats rare leverage in their year-long battle to break the House GOP legislative roadblock.

The question now: Does the White House have the stomach to push the standoff to the brink and allow the tax cuts, which will save the average family $1,000 a year, to expire — even for a week a two — to prove its point that tea party Republicans are holding the middle class hostage?

“This is one of those issues that President Clinton would say was a ‘bird’s nest on the ground’ – you just reach down and pick it up,” says veteran strategist Paul Begala, who currently advises a pro-Obama superPAC. “The lesson from the debt ceiling debacle and the government shutdown debacle earlier this year is this: Call their bluff, Mr. President.

“The upside to all those compromises he made with the Republicans, and I opposed some of them, was that now nobody can say he wasn’t willing to compromise. If the tax cut expires the American people will know exactly who to blame, and it’s not him.”

The Democratic apparatus has kicked into high gear to press that narrative. Even as the next steps remained unclear, Democrats welcomed the standoff as an early Christmas present, convinced that they got the toy and Republicans ended up with the lump of coal.

.............

HuffPost : "Iraq: Out of Sight, Out of Mind" - By Michael Brenner, Professor of International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh - "Failure is hard for a country to swallow -- especially so for the United States. The Reasons of Failure"

2011-12-19T14:49:00.001-05:00

The sting of serial misadventures in the Greater Middle East. Predatory aspirants to the Presidency will continue preaching a Faith of Jingoism and Hypernationalism.

My opinion : America is the Greatest and Most Important Nation in the World, nobody can doubt that. But even a blind man sees that its leaders have pushed the nation to military misadventures, worthy of the Greatest Cretins and Idiots. And even the Liberal press and the Democrats have followed.

At the heart of the failure is the undervaluation, underestimation, underrating, underreckoning of other nations : of their History, Valor, Courage, Bravery, Decision, National Pride, Determination, Resistance and Resilience against Domination and Imposition.

Huffington Post

Iraq: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

By Michael Brenner

Senior Fellow, the Center for Transatlantic Relations; Professor of International Affairs, University of Pittsburgh

December 19, 2011

Iraq: Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Some excerpts :

Failure is hard for a country to swallow -- especially so for the United States. For two reasons. One, Americans feel that our nation was born in a state of original virtue which, as Destiny's child, always would be crowned with success. Two, the US has experienced tangible failure only rarely in its triumphant sweep across the continent and then in its rise to world supremacy. The last best hope of mankind's motif pretty much sums up the collective self-esteem. Militarily, the worst was the tie in Korea and the abandonment of Vietnam. Even the ugly blemish of slavery and racism did not impair the pervasive sense of exceptionalism and superiority. And it, too, was addressed with exceptional effort -- however belatedly.

The deeply-etched image in our collective mind and heart is that America is a winner. A winner due to two factors: the talents and acumen of its inventive people; and the just rewards for its moral fiber. They are interlaced. We accomplish what nobody else can because we are both better at doing things and better people. We expect to be appreciated for both by the rest of the world. Failure, in this mindset, is inconceivable. To acknowledge failure is to accept a notion that undercuts the very essence of who we are. Moreover, given the powerful binding force that is the American civil religion, acceptance of national failure injures individual self esteem as well as national pride. That psychology raises the stakes on never failing.

..........

VIDEO : GOP wants to suppress Millions of Voters : Minorities, Seniors, Women, the Poor : Ed Schultz, Mike Papantonio, Caroline Heldman ( Politics Professor Occidental College ), Hilary Shelton from NAACP Washington Bureau Director

2011-12-17T15:56:00.003-05:00

.
Papantonio: How The Court System Will Help GOP Voter Suppression

Uploaded by golefttv on Dec 17, 2011

Mike Papantonio appears on MSNBC's The Ed Show to discuss how the corporate court system in America is going to help the GOP's voter suppression efforts.

Papantonio: How The Court System Will Help GOP Voter Suppression

***********************************

Two Videos : Cenk Uygur explains why the Iraq War bought enemies instead of allies - A respectable Conservative Christian Elderly Man in Britain considers this war as a Great Catastrophe for Britain and America

2011-12-16T11:58:00.004-05:00

Cenk Uygur : If we have waited a few years Saddam Hussein would have been toppled by his own people without loss of American Lives and Great Expenses.

The Christian Conservative Briton Man says : The Iraq War was a foolish intervention of the West into Religious Matters inside the Islam, to produce confrontation between the Sunni and the Shia denominations. The War produced Religious Sectarism, Factionalism, and Troubles inside the Muslims and their faith.

Iraq War Over - The Real Cost

Uploaded by TheYoungTurks on Dec 15, 2011

Major combat operations have ended in Iraq. The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks down the casualties and financial cost of the war started under President George Bush.

Iraq War Over - The Real Cost

***************************

THE IRAQ WAR -WORTH IT? LEONARD WELLS HASLINGDEN UK,DEC.2011

Uploaded by sirlenwells on Dec 15, 2011

THE IRAQ WAR -WORTH THE COST? BY LEONARD WELLS HASLINGDEN UK,FRIDAY DECEMBER 16TH 2011

****************

Agence France-Presse : Hundreds of Fallujah residents burn U.S. and Israeli flags as they demonstrate in celebration of the departure of US troops from Iraq, on December 14, 2011 - They also held up pictures of U.S. soldiers killed and military vehicles destroyed in the two major offensives against the city in 2004

2011-12-15T14:11:00.002-05:00

.
“We are proud to have driven the occupier out of Iraq, at the cost of enormous sacrifice,” said Khalid al-Alwa, the local leader of the Islamic Party, a Sunni Muslim grouping.

National Post - Toronto Canada
Agence France-Presse
Hundreds in Fallujah burn U.S. flag to celebrate troops pulling out of Iraq
December 14, 2011

Hundreds in Fallujah burn U.S. flag to celebrate troops pulling out of Iraq

Some excerpts :

FALLUJAH, Iraq — Hundreds of Iraqis set alight U.S. and Israeli flags on Wednesday as they celebrated the impending pullout of American forces from the country in the former insurgent bastion of Fallujah.

Shouting slogans in support of the “resistance,” the demonstrators held up banners and placards inscribed with phrases like, “Now we are free” and “Fallujah is the flame of the resistance.”

Surrounded by the Iraqi army, demonstrators carried posters bearing photos of apparent insurgents, faces covered and carrying weapons.

.............

Hundreds of Fallujah residents demonstrate in celebration of the departure of US troops from Iraq Wednesday

“Those who destroyed Iraq paid the price because the people here held them accountable.”

The demonstration, which was held in Al-Khadra Mohammediyah Square in the centre of Fallujah, was dubbed the first annual “festival to celebrate the role of the resistance.”

The United States is due to pull out the last of its troops from Iraq by the end of December, more than eight years after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Fallujah, a city of about half a million people 60 kilometres west of Baghdad, was home to some of the earliest anti-U.S. protests in the aftermath of the March 2003 invasion.

At the time, Fallujah residents were content to throw only their shoes at US soldiers. But in March 2004, four American employees of the U.S. private security firm Blackwater, since renamed Xe, were brutally killed in the city.

That year, the U.S. military launched two massive offensives against Fallujah, signs of which are still visible today in collapsed buildings and bullet holes in walls.

The first offensive in April aimed to quell the burgeoning Sunni insurgency but was a failure — Fallujah became a fiefdom of Al-Qaeda and its allies, who essentially controlled the city.

In November, a second campaign was launched, just months before legislative elections in January 2005. Around 2,000 civilians and 140 Americans died, and the battle is considered one of the fiercest for the U.S. since the Vietnam war.

........

SB 1070 Discussion - Business loves "Federal Preemption" and doesn't like "State Rights" creating regulations and obstacles for them, the Chamber of Commerce too, of course. "Federal Preemption" means less legal actions from states and people against Business

2011-12-14T18:09:00.004-05:00

.
And I write Business with a capital B :

"Federal Preemption" means the superiority of the Federal Government over the whims of the states and the supremacy of Congress Law over State Law. That is why Business prefers decisions at the Federal level and not a Hodge-Podge, that is a "mess" or a "jumble" of State Laws and Regulations.

So you see, what the Supreme Court decides in the Case of Arizona v United States, "papers please" or SB 1070 is of enormous interest for Business and sooner or later they are going to feel the glory or the pain.

As far as I understand Business in Arizona is not very happy with Governor Jan Brewer. And not only Business but many Civic Associations, Sheriffs, Police Chiefs, City Mayors, Councilors, County Commissioners, Legal Groups and Lawyers don't love the actions of that Lady.

You can tell me that Jurisprudence is an abstract science and that these economic and political considerations have no weight.

May be you are right, but at the end, Business, Money, Civic Associations, Legal Professionals, Professors, Civil Rights Activists etc .... will find a way of being heard. And big political and electoral movements may ensue against this ugly patchwork of legislations by 50 states.

Vicente Duque

VIDEO : Brave New Foundation and NAACP : the impact of the voting right attacks on communities of color. New Jim Crow and how to stand against it defending voting rights.- NAACP is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

2011-12-14T14:38:00.005-05:00

Brenda Williams is an Elderly Black Lady Doctor ( Physician ), she tells the story of Civil Rights and how now Blacks, Latinos, other Minorities, Senior Citizens and the Poor are engaged in a new battle against Voter Suppression. Some Republican States Legislatures do not want Minorities or the Poor to vote.

This is the new fight and the Lady Doctor tells us how she fights against discrimination and visits senior citizens to help them against these unjust laws.

NAACP is the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People fighting for Civil Rights and the Right to vote and elect.

Uploaded by naacpvideos on Dec 13, 2011

In collaboration with Brave New Foundation, the NAACP has put together a new video about the impact of the voting right attacks on communities of color. Please take a moment to watch and spread the message to everyone you know, then text STAND to 62227 to join our fight for voting rights.

We Will Stand: Defending Voting Rights

1964 Republican Primary in California : Rockefeller led Goldwater in most opinion polls in CA, when his new wife gave birth to a son, three days before the primary. His son's birth brought the issue of adultery front and center, and Rockefeller lost by 51% - 49%

2011-12-13T18:09:00.000-05:00

The Baby that almost killed the GOP ( for a time ) and made possible the Johnsonian Great Society :

United States presidential election, 1964 - In Wikipedia

The primaries

Republican primaries results

The Republican Party (GOP) was badly divided in 1964 between its conservative and moderate-liberal factions. Former Vice-President Richard Nixon, who had been beaten by Kennedy in the extremely close 1960 presidential election, decided not to run. Nixon, a moderate with ties to both wings of the GOP, had been able to unite the factions in 1960; in his absence the way was clear for the two factions to engage in an all-out political civil war for the nomination. Barry Goldwater, a Senator from Arizona, was the champion of the conservatives. The conservatives had historically been based in the American Midwest, but beginning in the 1950s the conservatives had been gaining in power in the South and West. The conservatives favored a low-tax, small federal government which supported individual rights and business interests and opposed social welfare programs. The conservatives also resented the dominance of the GOP's moderate wing, which was based in the Northeastern United States. Since 1940, the Eastern moderates had successfully defeated conservative presidential candidates at the GOP's national conventions. The conservatives believed the Eastern moderates were little different from liberal Democrats in their philosophy and approach to government. Goldwater's chief opponent for the Republican nomination was Nelson Rockefeller, the Governor of New York and the longtime leader of the GOP's liberal-moderate faction.

Initially, Rockefeller was considered the front-runner, ahead of Goldwater. However, in 1963, two years after Rockefeller's divorce from his first wife, he married Margarita "Happy" Murphy, a woman 15 years younger who had just divorced her husband and surrendered her four children to his custody.[5] The fact that Murphy had suddenly divorced her husband before marrying Rockefeller led to rumors that Rockefeller had been having an extramarital affair with her. This angered many social conservatives and female voters within the GOP, many of whom whispered that Rockefeller was a "wife stealer".[5] After his remarriage, Rockefeller's lead among Republicans lost 20 points overnight.[5] Senator Prescott Bush of Connecticut, the father of President George H.W. Bush and grandfather of President George W. Bush, was among Rockefeller's critics on this issue: "Have we come to the point in our life as a nation where the governor of a great state- one who perhaps aspires to the nomination for president of the United States- can desert a good wife, mother of his grown children, divorce her, then persuade a young mother of four youngsters to abandon her husband and their four children and marry the governor?"[5]

In the first primary, in New Hampshire, both Rockefeller and Goldwater were considered to be the favorites, but the voters instead gave a surprising victory to the U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Nixon's running mate in 1960 and a former Massachusetts senator. Lodge was a write-in candidate. Lodge went on to win the Massachusetts and New Jersey primaries before finally deciding that he didn't want the Republican nomination, he then withdrew his candidacy.

Despite his defeat in New Hampshire, Goldwater pressed on, winning the Illinois, Texas, and Indiana primaries with little opposition, and Nebraska's primary after a stiff challenge from a draft-Nixon movement. Goldwater also won a number of state caucuses and gathered even more delegates. Meanwhile, Nelson Rockefeller won the West Virginia and Oregon primaries against Goldwater, and William Scranton won in his home state of Pennsylvania. Both Rockefeller and Scranton also won several state caucuses, mostly in the Northeast.

The final showdown between Goldwater and Rockefeller was in the California primary. In spite of the previous accusations regarding his marriage, Rockefeller led Goldwater in most opinion polls in California, and he appeared headed for victory when his new wife gave birth to a son, Nelson Rockefeller, Jr., three days before the primary.[5] His son's birth brought the issue of adultery front and center, and Rockefeller suddenly lost ground in the polls.[5] Goldwater won the primary by a narrow 51% - 49% margin, thus eliminating Rockefeller as a serious contender and all but clinching the nomination. With Rockefeller's elimination, the party's moderates and liberals turned to William Scranton, the Governor of Pennsylvania, in the hopes that he could stop Goldwater. However, as the Republican Convention began Goldwater was seen as the heavy favorite to win the nomination.

.............

The Republican candidate, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, suffered from a lack of support from his own party and his far-right political positions. Johnson's campaign successfully portrayed Goldwater as being a dangerous extremist, and advocated social programs which became known as the Great Society. Johnson easily won the Presidency, carrying 44 of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. However, Goldwater's unsuccessful bid influenced the Republican Party and the modern conservative movement. His campaign received considerable support from former Democratic strongholds in the Deep South.

......

POLITICO.COM : Gary South : "The Republican-dominated Supreme Court is setting itself up to try to decide another presidential election, like it did in 2000. It brings to mind again the enormous stakes of that 2000 contest. If Al Gore had won, we wouldn't have Chief Justice Roberts or Justice Alito on the court today

2011-12-13T11:51:00.001-05:00

.
POLITICO.COM
"The Arena" Forum
What role will Supreme Court appointments play as a campaign issue in 2012?
December 13, 2011

What role will Supreme Court appointments play as a campaign issue in 2012?

Some excerpts :

**************************

Thomas J. Whalen Professor of Social Science, Boston University :

A huge role. In fact, it's one of President Obama's best political trump cards heading into his reelection campaign. He can reasonably argue to independents that although they're not crazy about how he's handled the economy, they'd be even more upset with a staunchly conservative Supreme Court intent on overturning almost a century of social and political reform dating back to the New Deal. There should be none of the president's usual equivocation here.

******************************

Ron Faucheux President of Clarus Research Group, professor and author :

The Supreme Court could play the biggest role in a presidential election next year since its resolution of the election in 2000. Which side benefits largely depends on how it rules. But either way, it puts health care and immigration on the campaign table.

***************************

Joanne Bamberger Political strategist; blogger PunditMom; Author, Mothers of Intention :

..............

Many justices stay on the highest bench for decades, allowing them to take a 'one case at a time' approach to molding our laws. While "The Nine" are supposed to be tasked with only interpreting and applying the law to the facts of a particular case, it's no secret that the Supreme Court has become increasingly activist and, when it suits the current conservative majority, has acted to extend case rulings to actually change existing laws to suit their personal political agendas.

If voters really want to know what kind of president a candidate will be and what direction they want for the country, all they need to ask of a candidate is, "Which Supreme Court justice do you admire most?"

***********************

Steve Frank Chief interpretive officer, National Constitution Center :

...............

If the Citizens United decision, unleashing limitless corporate and union spending on the election wasn’t enough to thrust the Supreme Court into the Election 2012 spotlight, the justices, by accepting the health care, immigration and Texas redistricting cases, have now assured that their role in our democracy will cast a long shadow over the campaign.

*************************

Ken Feltman Past president; International Association of Political Consultants :

The Supreme Court's decisions to take up three highly partisanship, contentious cases shows that the divisive politics evident in Congress exists at the state level as well. Now, the court has inserted itself squarely into the 2012 elections. Many Republicans believe that the politics of all three cases, if not the eventual Supreme Court decisions, favors them.

The healthcare law - dubbed "ObamaCare" by critics - sparks partisan wrangling on the national level and has served as a weapon for Republicans against the president and Democrats. The law has become an attack point against Mitt Romney in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination. The Texas and Arizona cases illustrate the extent of political bitterness at the state level. Review of the Texas redistricting law upsets election campaigning in Texas. Democratic plans to derail partisan Republican maps are on hold. Republican hopes for gains due to population shifts and shrewdly designed districts are again possible. The Arizona immigration law is divisive in the state and serves as a national flashpoint for partisans on both sides of the issue.

Supreme Court review of these cases makes it certain that three bitterly partisan political fights will continue into the 2012 elections. With GOP voters generally more energized on these issues, the Democrats may hope for early decisions to get the underlying issues out of the way before their candidates suffer as Republicans attack. Simply by agreeing to take these cases, the Supreme Court has made certain that these cases - if not the court itself - will play a large role in the 2012 elections.

*****************

Think Progress Justice : Certiorari is granted for "Arizona v United States", "SB 1070". Justice Kagan is recused. Will the Supreme Court legislate from the bench ?? ... in favor of the Patchwork Legislations from the States ??

2011-12-12T12:04:00.000-05:00

Will the Supreme Court replace the U. S. Congress paralyzed by Political Gridlock ??

This has more terrible implications than just Immigration ! - This could be "States Rights" imposed from the bench against the Executive and U. S. Legislative. This is "Legislating from the Bench" at its best.

The U. S. Supreme Court Legislation of SB 1070 could be defeated later by another Supreme Court, by Elections, by Politics or by opposition from the people, sheriffs, mayors, city councilor, county commissioners, business, etc ...

Think Progress Justice
Supreme Court Will Hear SB1070 Case, Justice Kagan Is Recused
By Ian Millhiser
December 12, 2011

Supreme Court Will Hear SB1070 Case, Justice Kagan Is Recused

Some excerpts :

In a brief order this morning, the Supreme Court announced that it will hear Arizona’s appeal of a lower court decision blocking much of its unconstitutional anti-immigrant law SB 1070:

11-182 ARIZONA, ET AL. V. UNITED STATES

The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. Justice Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of this petition.

The most interesting news here isn’t the fact that the Court took this case — with so many unconstitutional laws popping up in states with anti-immigrant governments, the Supreme Court owes the nation some clarity on whether it will permit these laws to stand. Rather, the most interesting revelation here is that Justice Kagan will not hear this case.

.........

Los Angeles Times : Great Expectations, Supreme Court Announcement on Monday, December 11, 10 AM : If SC turns down Arizona's appeal for SB 1070, then victory for the administration. If the court votes to hear the case in the spring, it will elevate illegal immigration as a political electoral issue

2011-12-11T11:16:00.002-05:00

Will the Supreme Court decide two hot-button political issues during an election year ?? ( Add Health Care ! ) - This is Top Secret today Sunday, nobody knows for sure what will happen tomorrow at 10 AM ??

Will the Supreme Court replace the U. S. Congress ?? ( paralyzed by Political Gridlock ! ).

Will the Supreme Court grab the Hot Potato of SB 1070 - The most dangerous political ticking bomb ?? - Supreme Court legislating from the bench ??

Los Angeles Times
Supreme Court may weigh in on Arizona immigration law
It would be the second hot political issue, after Obama's healthcare law, the justices could rule on during a presidential election year.

By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau
December 11, 2011

Supreme Court may weigh in on Arizona immigration law

Some excerpts :

The immigration case, like the healthcare case, pits Republican-led states against the Democratic administration. It also features the same lawyer. Paul D. Clement, the U.S. solicitor general under President George W. Bush, is representing the 26 Republican-led states that say the healthcare law should be struck down as unconstitutional. He also represents Arizona in its bid to revive its immigration law.

.......

Teddy Roosevelt went to Osawatomie Kansas in 1910 to celebrate a monument to John Brown, the Greatest American Terrorist ever ( Abolitionist ) 1800 to 1859 ( hanged ! ), and Obama went to Osawatomie to celebrate Teddy's speech against Injustice

2011-12-10T14:38:00.000-05:00

Slavery : History of White Man John Brown, abolitionist and Greatest Terrorist that America has produced - With Great Impact in the Civil War and History up to December 2011

John Brown (abolitionist)- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some excerpts :

John Brown (May 9, 1800 – December 2, 1859) was an American revolutionary abolitionist, who in the 1850s advocated and practiced armed insurrection as a means to abolish slavery in the United States. He led the Pottawatomie Massacre during which five men were killed, in 1856 in Bleeding Kansas, and made his name in the unsuccessful raid at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Later that year he was executed but his speeches at the trial captured national attention. Brown has been called "the most controversial of all 19th-century Americans"[1] and "America's first domestic terrorist."[2]

Brown's attempt in 1859 to start a liberation movement among enslaved African Americans in Harpers Ferry, Virginia electrified the nation. He was tried for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the murder of five pro-slavery Southerners, and inciting a slave insurrection, found guilty on all counts, and was hanged. Southerners alleged that his rebellion was the tip of the abolitionist iceberg and represented the wishes of the Republican Party to end slavery. Historians agree that the Harpers Ferry raid in 1859 escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the American Civil War.

Brown first gained attention when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis. Unlike most other Northerners, who advocated peaceful resistance to the pro-slavery faction, Brown demanded violent action in response to Southern aggression. Dissatisfied with the pacifism encouraged by the organized abolitionist movement, he reportedly said, "These men are all talk. What we need is action—action!" [3] During the Kansas campaign he and his supporters killed five pro-slavery southerners in what became known as the Pottawatomie Massacre in May 1856 in response to the raid of the "free soil" city of Lawrence. In 1859 he led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry. During the raid, he seized the armory; seven people were killed, and ten or more were injured. He intended to arm slaves with weapons from the arsenal, but the attack failed. Within 36 hours, Brown's men had fled or been killed or captured by local pro slavery farmers, militiamen, and U.S. Marines led by Robert E. Lee. Brown's subsequent capture by federal forces seized the nation's attention, as Southerners feared it was just the first of many Northern plots to cause a slave rebellion that might endanger their lives, while Republicans dismissed the notion and said they would not interfere with slavery in the South.[4]

Historians agree John Brown played a major role in the start of the Civil War. David Potter (1976) said the emotional effect of Brown's raid was greater than the philosophical effect of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, and that his raid revealed a deep division between North and South.[5] Brown's actions prior to the Civil War as an abolitionist, and the tactics he chose, still make him a controversial figure today. He is sometimes memorialized as a heroic martyr and a visionary and sometimes vilified as a madman and a terrorist. Some writers, such as Bruce Olds, describe him as a monomaniacal zealot, others, such as Stephen B. Oates, regard him as "one of the most perceptive human beings of his generation." David S. Reynolds hails the man who "killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights" and Richard Owen Boyer emphasizes that Brown was "an American who gave his life that millions of other Americans might be free." For Ken Chowder he is "at certain times, a great man", but also "the father of American terrorism."[6] The song "John Brown's Body" became a Union marching song during the Civil War.

Contents

[hide]

1 Early years

2 Transformative years in Springfield, Massachusetts

2.1 The Fugitive Slave Act and The League of Gileadites

3 Homestead in New York

4 Actions in Kansas

4.1 Pottawatomie

4.2 Account of the Pottawatomie Massacre by John Doyle, Son of James P. Doyle

4.3 Palmyra and Osawatomie

5 Later years

5.1 Gathering forces

5.2 Raid

5.3 Imprisonment and trial

5.4 Victor Hugo's reaction

6 Death and aftermath

6.1 Senate investigation

6.2 Aftermath of the raid

7 Viewpoints of historians

8 Visual portrayals

9 In fiction

10 Notes

11 References

11.1 Secondary sources

11.2 Primary sources

11.3 On-line

11.4 Historical fiction

12 External links

[edit] Early years

John Brown was born May 9, 1800, in Torrington, Connecticut. He was the fourth of the eight children of Owen Brown (February 16, 1771 – May 8, 1856) and Ruth Mills (January 25, 1772 – December 9, 1808) and grandson of Capt. John Brown (1728–1776).[7]

In 1805, the family moved to Hudson, Ohio, where Owen Brown opened a tannery. Brown's father became a supporter of the Oberlin Institute (original name of Oberlin College) in its early stage, although he was ultimately critical of the school's "Perfectionist" leanings, especially renowned in the preaching and teaching of Charles Finney and Asa Mahan. Brown withdrew his membership from the Congregational church in the 1840s and never officially joined another church, but both he and his father Owen were fairly conventional evangelicals for the period with its focus on the pursuit of personal righteousness. Brown's personal religion is fairly well documented in the papers of the Rev Clarence Gee, a Brown family expert, now held in the Hudson [Ohio] Library and Historical Society.

Brown's father had as an apprentice Jesse R. Grant, father of future general and U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.[8]

At the age of 16, John Brown left his family and went to Plainfield, Massachusetts, where he enrolled in a preparatory program. Shortly afterward, he transferred to the Morris Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut.[9] He hoped to become a Congregationalist minister, but money ran out and he suffered from eye inflammations, which forced him to give up the academy and return to Ohio. In Hudson, he worked briefly at his father's tannery before opening a successful tannery of his own outside of town with his adopted brother.

Brown circa 1846 in Springfield, Massachusetts.

John Brown in 1846 in Springfield, Massachusetts, holding the flag of Subterranean Pass Way,[10] his militant counterpart to the Underground Railroad.

In 1820, Brown married Dianthe Lusk. Their first child, John Jr, was born 13 months later. In 1825, Brown and his family moved to New Richmond, Pennsylvania, where he bought 200 acres (81 hectares) of land. He cleared an eighth of it and built a cabin, a barn, and a tannery. Within a year the tannery employed 15 men. Brown also made money raising cattle and surveying. He helped to establish a post office and a school. During this period, Brown operated an interstate business involving cattle and leather production along with a kinsman, Seth Thompson, from eastern Ohio.

In 1831, one of his sons died. Brown fell ill, and his businesses began to suffer, which left him in terrible debt. In the summer of 1832, shortly after the death of a newborn son, his wife Dianthe died. On June 14, 1833, Brown married 16-year-old Mary Ann Day (April 15, 1817 – May 1, 1884), originally of Meadville, Pennsylvania. They eventually had 13 children, in addition to the seven children from his previous marriage.

In 1836, Brown moved his family to Franklin Mills, Ohio (now known as Kent). There he borrowed money to buy land in the area, building and operating a tannery along the Cuyahoga River in partnership with Zenas Kent. [6] He suffered great financial losses in the economic crisis of 1839, which struck the western states more severely than had the Panic of 1837. Following the heavy borrowing trends of Ohio, many businessmen like Brown trusted too heavily in credit and state bonds and paid dearly for it. In one episode of property loss, Brown was even jailed when he attempted to retain ownership of a farm by occupying it against the claims of the new owner. Like other determined men of his time and background, he tried many different business efforts in an attempt to get out of debt. Along with tanning hides and cattle trading, he also undertook horse and sheep breeding, the last of which was to become a notable aspect of his pre-public vocation.

In 1837, in response to the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy, Brown publicly vowed: “Here, before God, in the presence of these witnesses, from this time, I consecrate my life to the destruction of slavery!” Brown was declared bankrupt by a federal court on September 28, 1842. In 1843, four of his children died of dysentery. As Louis DeCaro Jr shows in his biographical sketch (2007), from the mid-1840s Brown had built a reputation as an expert in fine sheep and wool, and entered into a partnership with Col. Simon Perkins of Akron, Ohio, whose flocks and farms were managed by Brown and sons. Brown eventually moved into a home with his family across the street from the Perkins Stone Mansion located on Perkins Hill. The John Brown House (Akron, Ohio) still stands and is owned and operated by The Summit County Historical Society of Akron, Ohio. As Brown's associations grew among sheep farmers of the region, his expertise was often discussed in agricultural journals even as he widened the scope of his travels in conjunction with sheep and wool concerns (which often brought him into contact with other fervent anti-slavery people as well).

[edit] Transformative years in Springfield, Massachusetts

In 1846, Brown and his business partner Simon Perkins moved to the ideologically progressive city of Springfield, Massachusetts. In Springfield, Brown found a community whose white leadership - from the community’s most prominent churches, to its most wealthy businessmen, to its most popular politicians, to its local jurists, and even to the publisher of one of the nation’s most influential newspapers - were deeply involved and emotionally invested in the anti-slavery movement.[11] Brown and Perkins' intent was to represent the interests of the Connecticut River Valley's wool growers against the interests of the region's wool manufacturers - thus Brown and Perkins set-up a wool commission operation. While in Springfield, Brown lived in a house at 51 Franklin Street.[12]

Several years before Brown's arrival in Springfield, in 1844, the city's African-American abolitionists had founded the Sanford Street "Free Church" - now known as St. John's Congregational Church - which went on to become one of the United States most prominent platforms for abolitionist speeches.[12] From 1846 until he left Springfield in 1850, John Brown was a parishioner at the Free Church, where he witnessed abolitionist lectures by Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth.[13] Indeed, during Brown's time in Springfield, he became deeply involved in transforming the city into a major center of abolitionism, and one of the safest and most significant stops on the Underground Railroad. John Brown's Bible is still on display at St. John's Congregational Church in Springfield, which to this day remains one of the Northeast's most prominent black churches.[14]

In 1847, after speaking at the "Free Church," the famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass spent a night speaking with John Brown, after which he wrote, "from this night spent with John Brown in Springfield, Mass. in 1847 while I continued to write and speak against slavery, I became all the same less hopeful for its peaceful abolition. My utterances became more and more tinged by the color of this man’s strong impressions.” [11]

While in Springfield, as Brown learned more about abolitionism and the Underground Railroad, he also learned more about the region's mercantile elite, which while initially a 'curse', proved ultimately to be a 'blessing' to Brown's later activities in Kansas and at Harper's Ferry. Springfield's mercantile elite reacted with hesitation to change their theretofore highly-profitable formula of low-quality wool sold en masse for low prices. Initially, Brown naively trusted Springfield's manufacturers, but soon came to realize that they were determined to maintain their control of price-setting. Also, on the outskirts of Springfield, the Connecticut River Valley's sheep farmers were largely unorganized and hesitant to change their methods of production to meet higher standards. In the Ohio Cultivator, Brown and other wool growers complained that the Connecticut River Valley's farmers' tendencies were lowering all U.S. wool prices abroad. In reaction, Brown made a last-ditch effort to overcome the Pioneer Valley's wool mercantile elite by seeking an alliance with European-based manufacturers. Ultimately, Brown was disappointed to learn that Europe wanted to buy Western Massachusetts's wools en masse at the cheap prices they'd been getting from them. Brown then traveled to England to seek a higher price for Springfield's wool. The trip was a disaster, as the firm incurred a loss of $40,000 (over $980,000 in today's dollars), of which Col. Perkins bore the larger share. With this misfortune, the Perkins and Brown wool commission operation closed in Springfield in late 1849. Subsequent lawsuits tied up the partners for several more years.

[edit] The Fugitive Slave Act and The League of Gileadites

Before Brown left Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1850, the United States passed the notorious Fugitive Slave Act, a law which gave federal marshals the right to pursue and capture runaway slaves. In response to Fugitive Slave Act, John Brown founded a militant group to prevent slaves' capture - The League of Gileadites - in Springfield. In the Bible, Mount Gilead was the place where only the bravest of Israelites would gather together to face an invading enemy. Brown founded the League of Gileadites with these words, "Nothing so charmes the American people as personal bravery. [Blacks] would have ten times the number [of whites friends than] they now have were they but half as much in earnest to secure their dearest rights as they are to ape the follies and extravagances of their white neighbors, and to indulge in idle show, in ease, and in luxury." [15] On leaving Springfield in 1850, Brown instructed the League of Gileadites to act "quickly, quietly, and efficiently" to protect slaves that escaped to Springfield - words that would foreshadow Brown's later actions preceding Harper's Ferry.[15] It is worth noting that from Brown's founding of the League of Gileadites onward, not one person was ever taken back into slavery from Springfield, Massachusetts.[11] On leaving Springfield in 1850, Brown gave his rocking chair to the mother of his beloved black porter, Thomas, as a gesture of affection.[11]

Some popular narrators have exaggerated the unfortunate demise of Brown and Perkins' wool commission in Springfield with Brown's later life choices. In actuality, Perkins absorbed much of the financial loss, and their partnership continued for several more years, with Brown nearly breaking even by 1854. The men remained friends after ending their partnership amicably. Indeed, Brown was a man of great talent and judgment in farming and sheep raising; however, he was not a good business administrator. The Perkins and Brown partnership not only reveal Brown as a man with a widely appreciated specialization (long since forgotten), but reflect his perennial zeal for the underdog which drove him to struggle on behalf of the economically vulnerable farmers of Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and those near Springfield, Massachusetts.

Brown's time in Springfield sowed the seeds for the future financial support that he would receive from New England's great merchants, introduced him to nationally famous abolitionists like Douglass and Truth, and included the foundation of his first militant anti-slavery group The League of Gileadites.[11][12] During this time, Brown also helped publicize David Walker's speech called Appeal.[16] Brown's personal attitudes evolved in Springfield, as he observed the success of the city's Underground railroad and made his first venture into militant, anti-slavery community organizing. In Springfield, Brown found a city that shared his own anti-slavery passions, and each seemed to educate the other. Certainly, with both successes and failures, Brown's Springfield years were a transformative period of his life, which catalyzed many of his later actions.[11]

[edit] Homestead in New York

John Brown's Farm, North Elba, New York

In 1848, Brown heard of Gerrit Smith's Adirondack land grants to poor black men, and decided to move his family among the new settlers. He bought land near North Elba, New York (near Lake Placid), for $1 an acre, although he spent little time there. After he was executed, his wife took his body there for burial. Since 1895, the farm has been owned by New York state.[17] The John Brown Farm and Gravesite is now a National Historic Landmark.

[edit] Actions in Kansas

In 1855, Brown learned from his adult sons in the Kansas territory that their families were completely unprepared to face attack, and that pro-slavery forces there were militant. Determined to protect his family and oppose the advances of pro-slavery supporters, Brown left for Kansas, enlisting a son-in-law and making several stops just to collect funds and weapons. As reported by the New York Tribune, Brown stopped en route to participate in an anti-slavery convention that took place in June 1855 in Albany, New York. Despite the controversy that ensued on the convention floor regarding the support of violent efforts on behalf of the free state cause, several individuals provided Brown some solicited financial support. As he went westward, however, Brown found more militant support in his home state of Ohio, particularly in the strongly anti-slavery Western Reserve section where he had been reared.

[edit] Pottawatomie

Main articles: Pottawatomie Massacre and Bleeding Kansas

Question book-new.svg

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011)

John Steuart Curry, Tragic Prelude, 1938–1940, John Brown and the clash of forces in Bleeding Kansas. A mural in the Kansas State Capitol, Topeka, Kansas.

Brown and the free settlers were optimistic that they could bring Kansas into the union as a slavery-free state. But in late 1855 and early 1856 it was increasingly clear to Brown that pro-slavery forces were willing to violate the rule of law in order to force Kansas to become a slave state. Brown believed that terrorism, fraud, and eventually deadly attacks became the obvious agenda of the pro-slavery supporters, then known as "Border Ruffians." After the winter snows thawed in 1856, the pro-slavery activists began a campaign to seize Kansas on their own terms. Brown was particularly affected by the Sacking of Lawrence in May 1856, in which a sheriff-led posse destroyed newspaper offices and a hotel. Only one man, a Border Ruffian, was killed. Preston Brooks's caning of anti-slavery Senator Charles Sumner also fueled Brown's anger. These violent acts were accompanied by celebrations in the pro-slavery press, with writers such as Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow of the Squatter Sovereign proclaiming that pro-slavery forces "are determined to repel this Northern invasion, and make Kansas a Slave State; though our rivers should be covered with the blood of their victims, and the carcasses of the Abolitionists should be so numerous in the territory as to breed disease and sickness, we will not be deterred from our purpose" (quoted in Reynolds, p. 162). Brown was outraged by both the violence of the pro-slavery forces, and also by what he saw as a weak and cowardly response by the antislavery partisans and the Free State settlers, who he described as "cowards, or worse" (Reynolds pp. 163–164).

Biographer Louis A. DeCaro Jr. further shows that Brown's beloved father, Owen, had died on May 8, 1856 and correspondence indicates that John Brown and his family received word of his death around the same time. The emotional darkness of the hour was intensified by the real concerns that Brown had for the welfare of his sons and the free state settlers in their vicinity, especially since the sacking of Lawrence seems to have signaled an all-out campaign of violence by pro-slavery forces. Brown conducted surveillance on encamped "ruffians" in his vicinity and learned that his family was marked for attack, and furthermore was given reliable information as to pro-slavery neighbors who had aligned and supported these forces. The pro-slavery men did not necessarily own any slaves, although the Doyles (three of the victims) were slave hunters prior to settling in Kansas. According to Salmon Brown, when the Doyles were seized, Mahala Doyle acknowledged that her husband's "devilment" had brought down this attack to their doorstep – further signifying that the Browns' attack was probably grounded in real concern for their own survival.

Sometime after 10:00 pm May 24, 1856, it is suspected they took five pro-slavery settlers – James Doyle, William Doyle, Drury Doyle, Allen Wilkinson, and William Sherman – from their cabins on Pottawatomie Creek and hacked them to death with broadswords. Brown later claimed he did not participate in the killings, however he did say he approved of them.

[edit] Account of the Pottawatomie Massacre by John Doyle, Son of James P. Doyle

[18]

"I, John C. Doyle, was born in Knox County, Tennessee December 19, 1838. My father, Pleasant Doyle, moved to Walker County, Ga., in 1845, moved to Chattanooga1 in 1848, and lived in and around Chattanooga until October 11, 1855, at which time we moved to Kansas; traveled through the country in wagons, via Nashville, Hopkinsville, Ky., St. Louis, Mo., Kansas City, Mo., then fifty miles southwest to Franklin County, Kansas, arriving there November 18, 1856. We settled on a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, built a house, and spent the winter there. In the spring of 1856 we planted a crop. Everything was quiet and peaceful until the night of May 24, when John Brown, with about twenty-five men, came to the house and demanded admittance. When refused admittance, they set fire to the house with torches made of prairie hay. To keep up all from being burned to death my father opened the door. They came in the house and handcuffed my father and my two older brothers and started to take me but my mother begged them to leave me, as I would be all the protection she would have. Brown told mother they were going to take father and the boys to the army, and left the house with them. They took them about three hundred yards from the house and murdered them. My father was shot in the head, my brothers cut to pieces. They left them all dead in a heap. They then went over two miles further to Potawatma River and killed two more men by the names of Wilkerson and Sherman. After they had killed my father and brothers, some of Brown's men came back to our house to get our horses, but failed to find them, as we had them staked out on the prairie to graze, as that was the way we had to feed them.

"...After daylight I went to some neighbor's houses and got them to come and help bury father and my brothers. After burying them I loaded up a few things in a wagon and brought my mother and the rest of the children to Cass County, Mo. We remained there until September of the same year, then came back to Chattanooga to live.

"In November, 1859, when John Brown was hanged at Charlestown, W. Va., I had permission from Governor Wise to hang him, but failed to get there on account of a landslide between Morristown and Bristol.

"I went into the Confederate army in June, 1861; was paroled at Charlotte, N. C, May, 1865.

"My mother lived in Chattanooga, until the town was being shelled in 1863, then moved out a few miles in the country, near Chickamauga. As Rosecrans retreated from Chickamauga, his army destroyed everything.

"Our family consisted of six boys and one girl. My father's object in going to Kansas was to get a home for us. Brown said he murdered them on account of being slaveholders, but my father had never owned a negro and never expected to. Brown and his men simply murdered them because they were from the South."

[edit] Palmyra and Osawatomie

A force of Missourians, led by Captain Henry Pate, captured John Jr. and Jason, and destroyed the Brown family homestead, and later participated in the Sack of Lawrence. On June 2, John Brown, nine of his followers, and twenty local men successfully defended a Free State settlement at Palmyra, Kansas against an attack by Pate. (See Battle of Black Jack.) Pate and twenty-two of his men were taken prisoner (Reynolds pp. 180–181, 186). After capture, they were taken to Brown's camp, and received all the food that Brown could find. Brown forced Pate to sign a treaty, exchanging the freedom of Pate and his men for the promised release of Brown's two captured sons. Brown released Pate to Colonel Edwin Sumner, but was furious to discover that the release of his sons was delayed until September.

In August, a company of over three hundred Missourians under the command of Major General John W. Reid crossed into Kansas and headed towards Osawatomie, Kansas, intending to destroy the Free State settlements there, and then march on Topeka and Lawrence.[19] On the morning of August 30, 1856, they shot and killed Brown's son Frederick and his neighbor David Garrison on the outskirts of Osawatomie. Brown, outnumbered more than seven to one, arranged his 38 men behind natural defenses along the road. Firing from cover, they managed to kill at least 20 of Reid's men and wounded 40 more.[20] Reid regrouped, ordering his men to dismount and charge into the woods. Brown's small group scattered and fled across the Marais des Cygnes River. One of Brown's men was killed during the retreat and four were captured. While Brown and his surviving men hid in the woods nearby, the Missourians plundered and burned Osawatomie. Despite being defeated, Brown's bravery and military shrewdness in the face of overwhelming odds brought him national attention and made him a hero to many Northern abolitionists,[21] who gave him the nickname "Osawatomie Brown". This incident was dramatized in the play Osawatomie Brown.

On September 7, Brown entered Lawrence to meet with Free State leaders and help fortify against a feared assault. At least 2,700 pro-slavery Missourians were once again invading Kansas. On September 14 they skirmished near Lawrence. Brown prepared for battle, but serious violence was averted when the new governor of Kansas, John W. Geary, ordered the warring parties to disarm and disband, and offered clemency to former fighters on both sides.[22] Brown, taking advantage of the fragile peace, left Kansas with three of his sons to raise money from supporters in the north.

[edit] Later years

[edit] Gathering forces

By November 1856, Brown had returned to the East, and spent the next two years in New England raising funds. Initially, Brown returned to Springfield, where he received contributions, and also a letter of recommendation from a prominent and wealthy merchant, Mr. George Walker. George Walker was the brother-in-law of Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, the secretary for the Massachusetts State Kansas Committee, who later introduced Brown to several influential abolitionists in the Boston area in January 1857.[12][23]Amos Adams Lawrence, a prominent Boston merchant, secretly gave a large amount of cash. William Lloyd Garrison, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Theodore Parker and George Luther Stearns, and Samuel Gridley Howe also supported Brown. A group of six wealthy abolitionists – Sanborn, Higginson, Parker, Stearns, Howe, and Gerrit Smith – agreed to offer Brown financial support for his antislavery activities; they would eventually provide most of the financial backing for the raid on Harpers Ferry, and would come to be known as the Secret Six[24] and the Committee of Six. Brown often requested help from them with "no questions asked" and it remains unclear of how much of Brown's scheme the Secret Six were aware.

On January 7, 1858, the Massachusetts Committee pledged to provide 200 Sharps Rifles and ammunition, which was being stored at Tabor, Iowa. In March, Brown contracted Charles Blair of Collinsville, Connecticut for 1,000 pikes.

John Brown in 1859

In the following months, Brown continued to raise funds, visiting Worcester, Springfield, New Haven, Syracuse and Boston. In Boston, he met Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. He received many pledges but little cash. In March, while in New York City, he was introduced to Hugh Forbes, an English mercenary, who had experience as a military tactician gained while fighting with Giuseppe Garibaldi in Italy in 1848. Brown hired him to be the drillmaster for his men and to write their tactical handbook. They agreed to meet in Tabor that summer.

Using the alias Nelson Hawkins, Brown traveled through the Northeast and then went to visit his family in Hudson, Ohio. On August 7, he arrived in Tabor. Forbes arrived two days later. Over several weeks, the two men put together a "Well-Matured Plan" for fighting slavery in the South. The men quarreled over many of the details. In November, their troops left for Kansas. Forbes had not received his salary and was still feuding with Brown, so he returned to the East instead of venturing into Kansas. He would soon threaten to expose the plot to the government.

William Maxon's house, near Springdale, Iowa, where Brown's accomplices lived and trained, 1857–1859.

Because the October elections saw a free-state victory, Kansas was quiet. Brown made his men return to Iowa, where he fed them tidbits of his Virginia scheme.[25] In January 1858, Brown left his men in Springdale, Iowa, and set off to visit Frederick Douglass in Rochester, New York. There he discussed his plans with Douglass, and reconsidered Forbes' criticisms.[26] Brown wrote a Provisional Constitution that would create a government for a new state in the region of his invasion. Brown then traveled to Peterboro, New York and Boston to discuss matters with the Secret Six. In letters to them, he indicated that, along with recruits, he would go into the South equipped with weapons to do "Kansas work".

Brown and twelve of his followers, including his son Owen, traveled to Chatham, Ontario where he convened on May 8 a Constitutional Convention. The convention was put together with the help of Dr. Martin Delany. One-third of Chatham's 6,000 residents were fugitive slaves, and it was here that Brown was introduced to Harriet Tubman. The convention assembled 34 blacks and 12 whites to adopt Brown's Provisional Constitution. According to Delany, during the convention, Brown illuminated his plans to make Kansas rather than Canada the end of the Underground Railroad. This would be the Subterranean Pass Way. He never mentioned or hinted at the idea of Harpers Ferry. But Delany's reflections are not entirely trustworthy. Brown was no longer looking toward Kansas and was entirely focused on Virginia. Other testimony from the Chatham meeting suggests Brown did speak of going South. Brown had long used the terminology of the Subterranean Pass Way from the late 1840s, so it is possible that Delany conflated Brown's statements over the years. Regardless, Brown was elected commander-in-chief and he named John Henrie Kagi as his "Secretary of War". Richard Realf was named "Secretary of State". Elder Monroe, a black minister, was to act as president until another was chosen. A.M. Chapman was the acting vice president; Delany, the corresponding secretary. In 1859, "A Declaration of Liberty by the Representatives of the Slave Population of the United States of America" was written.

Although nearly all of the delegates signed the constitution, very few delegates volunteered to join Brown's forces, although it will never be clear how many Canadian expatriates actually intended to join Brown because of a subsequent "security leak" that threw off plans for the raid, creating a hiatus in which Brown lost contact with many of the Canadian leaders. This crisis occurred when Hugh Forbes, Brown's mercenary, tried to expose the plans to Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson and others. The Secret Six feared their names would be made public. Howe and Higginson wanted no delays in Brown's progress, while Parker, Stearns, Smith and Sanborn insisted on postponement. Stearns and Smith were the major sources of funds, and their words carried more weight.

To throw Forbes off the trail and to invalidate his assertions, Brown returned to Kansas in June, and he remained in that vicinity for six months. There he joined forces with James Montgomery, who was leading raids into Missouri. On December 20, Brown led his own raid, in which he liberated eleven slaves, took captive two white men, and stole horses and wagons. On January 20, 1859, he embarked on a lengthy journey to take the eleven liberated slaves to Detroit and then on a ferry to Canada. While passing through Chicago, Brown met with Allan Pinkerton who arranged and raised the fare for the passage to Detroit.[27]

Brown as he appears at the National Portrait Gallery

Over the course of the next few months he traveled again through Ohio, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts to draw up more support for the cause. On May 9, he delivered a lecture in Concord, Massachusetts. In attendance were Bronson Alcott, Rockwell Hoar, Emerson and Thoreau. Brown also reconnoitered with the Secret Six. In June he paid his last visit to his family in North Elba, before he departed for Harpers Ferry. He stayed one night enroute in Hagerstown, Maryland at the Washington House, on West Washington Street. On June 30, 1859 the hotel had at least 25 guests, including I. Smith and Sons, Oliver Smith and Owen Smith and Jeremiah Anderson, all from New York. From papers found in the Kennedy Farmhouse after the raid, it is known that Brown wrote to Kagi that he would sign into a hotel as I. Smith and Sons.[28]

[edit] Raid

Main article: John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry

Harper's Weekly illustration of U.S. Marines attacking John Brown's "Fort"

Brown arrived in Harpers Ferry on July 3, 1859. A few days later, under the name Isaac Smith, he rented a farmhouse in nearby Maryland. He awaited the arrival of his recruits. They never materialized in the numbers he expected. In late August he met with Douglass in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he revealed the Harpers Ferry plan. Douglass expressed severe reservations, rebuffing Brown's pleas to join the mission. Douglass had actually known about Brown's plans from early in 1859 and had made a number of efforts to discourage blacks from enlisting.

In late September, the 950 pikes arrived from Charles Blair. Kagi's draft plan called for a brigade of 4,500 men, but Brown had only 21 men (16 white and 5 black: three free blacks, one freed slave, and a fugitive slave). They ranged in age from 21 to 49. Twelve of them had been with Brown in Kansas raids.

On October 16, 1859, Brown (leaving three men behind as a rear guard) led 18 men in an attack on the Harpers Ferry Armory. He had received 200 Beecher's Bibles—breechloading .52 caliber Sharps rifles—and pikes from northern abolitionist societies in preparation for the raid. The armory was a large complex of buildings that contained 100,000 muskets and rifles, which Brown planned to seize and use to arm local slaves. They would then head south, drawing off more and more slaves from plantations, and fighting only in self-defense. As Frederick Douglass and Brown's family testified, his strategy was essentially to deplete Virginia of its slaves, causing the institution to collapse in one county after another, until the movement spread into the South, essentially wreaking havoc on the economic viability of the pro-slavery states. Thus, while violence was essential to self-defense and advancement of the movement, Brown's hope was to limit and minimize bloodshed, not ignite a slave insurrection as many have charged. From the Southern point of view, of course, any effort to arm the enslaved was perceived as a definitive threat.

Initially, the raid went well, and they met no resistance entering the town. They cut the telegraph wires and easily captured the armory, which was being defended by a single watchman. They next rounded up hostages from nearby farms, including Colonel Lewis Washington, great-grandnephew of George Washington. They also spread the news to the local slaves that their liberation was at hand . Things started to go wrong when an eastbound Baltimore & Ohio train approached the town. The train's baggage master tried to warn the passengers. Brown's men yelled for him to halt and then opened fire. The baggage master, Hayward Shepherd, became the first casualty of John Brown's war against slavery. Ironically, Shepherd was a free black man. Two of the hostages' slaves also died in the raid.[29] For some reason, after the shooting of Shepherd, Brown allowed the train to continue on its way.

A. J. Phelps, the Through Express passenger train conductor, sent a telegram to W. P. Smith, Master of Transportation of the B. & O. R. R., Baltimore:

Monocacy, 7.05 A. M., October 17, 1859.

Express train bound east, under my charge, was stopped this morning at Harper's Ferry by armed abolitionists. They have possession of the bridge and the arms and armory of the United States. Myself and Baggage Master have been fired at, and Hayward, the colored porter, is wounded very severely, being shot through the body, the ball entering the body below the left shoulder blade and coming out under the left side. [30]

News of the raid reached Baltimore early that morning and then on to Washington by late morning.

In the meantime, local farmers, shopkeepers, and militia pinned down the raiders in the armory by firing from the heights behind the town. Some of the local men were shot by Brown's men. At noon, a company of militia seized the bridge, blocking the only escape route. Brown then moved his prisoners and remaining raiders into the engine house, a small brick building at the entrance to the armory. He had the doors and windows barred and loopholes were cut through the brick walls. The surrounding forces barraged the engine house, and the men inside fired back with occasional fury. Brown sent his son Watson and another supporter out under a white flag, but the angry crowd shot them. Intermittent shooting then broke out, and Brown's son Oliver was wounded. His son begged his father to kill him and end his suffering, but Brown said "If you must die, die like a man." A few minutes later he was dead. The exchanges lasted throughout the day.

Illustration of the interior of the Fort immediately before the door is broken down

Barclay Coppock[31]

Edwin Coppock

By the morning of October 18 the engine house, later known as John Brown's Fort, was surrounded by a company of U.S. Marines under the command of Colonel Robert E. Lee of the United States Army. A young Army lieutenant, J.E.B. Stuart, approached under a white flag and told the raiders that their lives would be spared if they surrendered. Brown refused, saying, "No, I prefer to die here." Stuart then gave a signal. The Marines used sledge hammers and a make-shift battering-ram to break down the engine room door. Lieutenant Israel Greene cornered Brown and struck him several times, wounding his head. In three minutes Brown and the survivors were captives. Altogether Brown's men killed four people, and wounded nine. Ten of Brown's men were killed (including his sons Watson and Oliver). Five of Brown's men escaped (including his son Owen), and seven were captured along with Brown. Among the killed raiders were John Henry Kagi; Lewis Sheridan Leary and Dangerfield Newby; those hanged besides Brown were John Anthony Copeland, Jr. and Shields Green John Brown raiders [7]:

Killed

John Anderson

Jeremiah Goldsmith Anderson (killed during the storming of John Brown's Fort)

Oliver Brown

Watson Brown

John Henry Kagi

Lewis Sheridan Leary

William H. Leeman

Dangerfield Newby

Stewart Taylor (died of wounds)

Dauphin Thompson (killed during the storming of John Brown's Fort)

William Thompson captured and killed by militia. For an account of his capture, see "Seven Marstellers and their lineal descendants" by Rev.John Andrew Thompson Marsteller (1938)

Hanged in 1859 following the raid

John Brown

John E. Cook

John A. Copeland, Jr.

Edwin Coppock

Shields Green

Hanged in 1860

Albert Hazlett

Aaron D. Stevens

Died during US Civil War

Barclay Coppock

Charles Plummer Tidd

Survived

Osborne Perry Anderson

Owen Brown

Francis Jackson Meriam

[edit] Imprisonment and trial

See also: Virginia v. John Brown

Brown and the others captured were held in the office of the armory. On October 18, 1859, Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise, Virginia Senator James M. Mason, and Representative Clement Vallandigham of Ohio arrived in Harpers Ferry. Mason led the three-hour questioning session of Brown.

Although the attack had taken place on Federal property, Wise ordered that Brown and his men should be tried in Virginia in Charles Town, the nearby county seat capital of Jefferson County just seven miles west of Harpers Ferry (perhaps to avert Northern political pressure on the Federal government, or in the unlikely event of a presidential pardon). The trial began October 27, after a doctor pronounced the still-wounded Brown fit for trial. Brown was charged with murdering four whites and a black, with conspiring with slaves to rebel, and with treason against Virginia. A series of lawyers were assigned to Brown, who included Lawson Botts, Thomas C. Green, Samuel Chilton, a lawyer from Washington D.C., and George Hoyt, but it was Hiram Griswold, a lawyer from Cleveland, Ohio who concluded the defense on October 31. In his closing statement, Griswold argued that Brown could not be found guilty of treason against a state to which he owed no loyalty and was not a resident of, and that Brown had not personally killed anyone himself, and also that the failure of the raid indicated that Brown had not conspired with slaves. Andrew Hunter, the local district attorney, presented the closing arguments for the prosecution.

On November 2, after a week-long trial and 45 minutes of deliberation, the Charles Town jury found Brown guilty on all three counts. Brown was sentenced to be hanged in public on December 2. In response to the sentence, Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked that "[John Brown] will make the gallows glorious like the Cross." Cadets from the Virginia Military Institute under the leadership of General Francis H. Smith and Major Thomas J. Jackson (who would earn the nickname "Stonewall" less than two years later) were called into service as a security detail in the event Brown's supporters attempted a rescue.

John Brown - Treason broadside, 1859.png

“ Had I interfered in the manner which I admit, and which I admit has been fairly proved (for I admire the truthfulness and candor of the greater portion of the witnesses who have testified in this case), had I so interfered in behalf of the rich, the powerful, the intelligent, the so-called great, or in behalf of any of their friends, either father, mother, brother, sister, wife, or children, or any of that class, and suffered and sacrificed what I have in this interference, it would have been all right; and every man in this court would have deemed it an act worthy of reward rather than punishment.

This court acknowledges, as I suppose, the validity of the law of God. I see a book kissed here which I suppose to be the Bible, or at least the New Testament. That teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them. It teaches me, further, to "remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them." I endeavored to act up to that instruction. I say, I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered as I have done as I have always freely admitted I have done in behalf of His despised poor, was not wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit; so let it be done!"

”

— Excerpt from a speech given by John Brown in court after his conviction, John Brown's Last Speech, November 2, 1859

During his month in jail, Brown was allowed to send and receive correspondence. He refused to be rescued by Silas Soule, a friend from Kansas who had somehow infiltrated the Jefferson County Jail offering to break him out during the night and flee northward. Brown supposedly told Silas that, being 59-years-old, he was too old to live a life on the run from the Federal authorities, and he was ready to die as a martyr. Silas left him behind to be executed. More importantly, many of Brown's letters exuded high tones of spirituality and conviction and, when picked up by the northern press, won increasing numbers of supporters in the North as they simultaneously infuriated many white people in the South. On December 1, his wife arrived by train in Charles Town where she joined him at the county jail for his last meal. She was denied permission to stay for the night, prompting Brown to lose his composure for the only time through the ordeal.

[edit] Victor Hugo's reaction

Victor Hugo, from exile on Guernsey, tried to obtain pardon for John Brown: he sent an open letter that was published by the press on both sides of the Atlantic (cf. Actes et paroles). This text, written at Hauteville-House on December 2, 1859, warned of a possible civil war:

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Victor Hugo's letter to the London News

"[...] Politically speaking, the murder of John Brown would be an uncorrectable sin. It would create in the Union a latent fissure that would in the long run dislocate it. Brown's agony might perhaps consolidate slavery in Virginia, but it would certainly shake the whole American democracy. You save your shame, but you kill your glory. Morally speaking, it seems a part of the human light would put itself out, that the very notion of justice and injustice would hide itself in darkness, on that day where one would see the assassination of Emancipation by Liberty itself. [...]

Let America know and ponder on this: there is something more frightening than Cain killing Abel, and that is Washington killing Spartacus."

[edit] Death and aftermath

The Last Moments of John Brown, by Thomas Hovenden

On the morning of December 2, Brown wrote "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done." He read his Bible and wrote a final letter to his wife, which included his will. At 11:00 he was escorted from the county jail through a crowd of 2,000 soldiers a few blocks away to a small field where the gallows were. Among the soldiers in the crowd were future Confederate general Stonewall Jackson and John Wilkes Booth, who borrowed a militia uniform to gain admission to the execution.[32] The poet Walt Whitman, in "Year of Meteors," described viewing the execution.[33]

Brown was accompanied by the sheriff and his assistants, but no minister since he had consistently rejected the ministrations of pro-slavery clergy. Since the region was in the grips of virtual hysteria, most northerners, including journalists, were run out of town, and it is unlikely any anti-slavery clergyman would have been safe, even if one were to have sought to visit Brown. He elected to receive no religious services in the jail or at the scaffold. He was hanged at 11:15 a.m. and pronounced dead at 11:50 a.m. His body was placed in a wooden coffin with the noose still around his neck. In the North, large memorial meetings took place, church bells rang, minute guns were fired, and famous writers such as Emerson and Thoreau joined many Northerners in praising Brown.[34]

John Brown is buried on the John Brown Farm in North Elba, New York, on the outskirts of Lake Placid. The farm and grave are located near Old Military Road. Also buried near Brown are his sons Oliver Brown and Watson Brown. The tombstone of Captain John Brown (1728–1776)[7] is on the grave of his grandson John Brown.

[edit] Senate investigation

On December 14, 1859, the U.S. Senate appointed a bipartisan committee to investigate the Harpers Ferry raid and to determine whether any citizens contributed arms, ammunition or money . The Democrats attempted to implicate the Republicans in the raid; the Republicans tried to disassociate themselves from Brown and his acts.

The Senate committee heard testimony from 32 witnesses, including Liam Dodson, one of the surviving abolitionists. The report, authored by chairman James M. Mason, a pro-slavery politician from Virginia, was published in June, 1860. It found no direct evidence of a conspiracy, but implied that the raid was a result of Republican doctrines. The two committee Republicans published a minority report, but were apparently more concerned about denying Northern culpability than clarifying the nature of Brown's efforts. Republicans such as Abraham Lincoln rejected any connection with the raid. Lincoln called Brown "insane."[35]

[edit] Aftermath of the raid

John Brown's tombstone, North Elba, New York

The raid on Harpers Ferry is generally thought to have done much to set the nation on a course toward civil war. Southern slaveowners, hearing initial reports that hundreds of abolitionists were involved, were relieved the effort was so small. Yet they feared other abolitionists would emulate Brown and attempt to lead slave rebellions. Therefore the South reorganized the decrepit militia system. These militias, well-established by 1861, became a ready-made Confederate army, making the South better prepared for war.[36]

Southern Democrats charged that Brown's raid was an inevitable consequence of the Republican Party's political platform, which they associated with Abolitionism. In light of the upcoming elections in November 1860, the Republican political and editorial response to John Brown tried to distance themselves as much as possible from Brown, condemning the raid and dismissing Brown as an insane fanatic. As one historian explains, Brown was successful in polarizing politics:[36]

"Brown's raid succeeded brilliantly. It drove a wedge through the already tentative and fragile Opposition-Republican coalition and helped to intensify the sectional polarization that soon tore the Democratic party and the Union apart."

Many abolitionists in the North viewed John Brown as a martyr who had been sacrificed for the sins of the nation. Immediately after the raid, William Lloyd Garrison published a column in The Liberator, judging Brown's raid as "well-intended but sadly misguided" and "an enterprise so wild and futile as this".[37] However, he defended Brown's character from detractors in the Northern and Southern press, and argued that those who supported the principles of the American Revolution could not consistently oppose Brown's raid. (Garrison reiterated the point, adding that "whenever commenced, I cannot but wish success to all slave insurrections", in a speech in Boston on the day Brown was hanged).[38][39]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Brown of Ossawatomie

On December 22, 1859, John Greenleaf Whittier published a poem praising him, "Brown of Ossawatomie".

After the Civil War, Black leader Frederick Douglass wrote, "His zeal in the cause of my race was far greater than mine—it was as the burning sun to my taper light—mine was bounded by time, his stretched away to the boundless shores of eternity. I could live for the slave, but he could die for him."[40]

[edit] Viewpoints of historians

Life size white marble statue of John Brown in Quindaro Townsite, Kansas.[41]

As the United States distanced itself from the cause of slavery and "bayonet rule" in the South, the historical view of Brown declined in a manner parallel with the demise of Reconstruction. In the 1880s, Brown's detractors – some of them contemporaries embarrassed by their fervent abolitionism – began to produce virulent exposés, particularly emphasizing the Pottawatomie killings of 1856.

Although Oswald Garrison Villard's 1910 biography of Brown was thought to be friendly, Villard being the grandson of abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, he also added fuel to the anti-Brown fire by criticizing him as a murderer de facto. Villard himself was a pacifist and admired Brown in many respects, but his interpretation of the facts provided a paradigm for later anti-Brown writers. By the mid-20th century, some scholars were fairly convinced that John Brown was a fanatic and killer, while some African Americans sustained a positive view of the man.[42] Even as late as the mid-20th century, some Southerners used his name as a substitute for profanity and used the eponym as a curse.

Recent biographers accounts vary, although several works that have been published on Brown since the opening of the 21st century have marked a significant shift away from the hostility of writers on Brown. Toledo (2002), Peterson (2002), DeCaro (2002, 2007), Reynolds (2005), and Carton (2006) are critically appreciative of Brown's history, far from the opinions of earlier writers. A division of opinion is evident in two recent works of historical fiction: Bruce Olds's 1995 "Raising Holy Hell", which portrays Brown as a religious zealot tortured by delusions of godly violence; and the more unapologetically sympathetic fictional portrayal of Brown found in Russell Banks's 1998 "Cloudsplitter". The shift to an appreciative perspective on Brown moves many white historians toward the view long held by black scholars such as W. E. B. DuBois, Benjamin Quarles, and Lerone Bennett Jr.

Writing in the 1970s, Albert Fried, a biographer and historiographer of Brown, concluded that historians who portrayed Brown as a dysfunctional figure are "really informing me of their predilections, their judgment of the historical event, their identification with the moderates and opposition to the 'extremists.'"[43] Unfortunately it is this less studied, highly interpretive view of Brown that has prevailed in academic writing as well as in journalism; as biographer Louis DeCaro Jr. has recently written, "there is no consensus of fairness with respect to Brown in either the academy or the media."[44] The current trend among some writers to portray Brown as another Timothy Mc Veigh or Osama bin Laden may still reflect the same bias that Fried discussed a generation ago. DeCaro likewise complains of writers taking "unstudied liberties" and concludes that in the 20th century alone, "poisonous portrayals [of Brown were] so prevalent as virtually to have formed one long screed of hyperbole and sarcasm in the name of historical narrative."[45]

Biographer Richard Owen Boyer has called him "an American who gave his life that millions of other Americans might be free";[46]

Biographer Stephen B. Oates has described him as "maligned as a demented dreamer... (but) in fact one of the most perceptive human beings of his generation";[47]

Biographer David S. Reynolds gives Brown credit for starting the civil war or "killing slavery", and cautions others against identifying Brown with terrorism.[48] Reynolds sees him as the inspiration for the Civil Rights Movement a century later, arguing "it is misleading to identify Brown with modern terrorists."[49]

Historian and Brown researcher Paul Finkelman calls him "simply part of a very violent world" and states that Brown "is a bad tactician, a bad strategist, he's a bad planner, he's not a very good general-but he's not crazy"[50]

Biographer Louis A. DeCaro Jr., who has debunked many historical allegations about Brown's early life and public career, concludes that although he "was hardly the only abolitionist to equate slavery with sin, his struggle against slavery was far more personal and religious than it was for many abolitionists, just as his respect and affection for black people was far more personal and religious than it was for most enemies of slavery."[51]

Historian and Brown documentary scholar Louis Ruchames wrote: "Brown's action was one of great idealism and placed him in the company of the great liberators of mankind.";[52]

Biographer Otto Scott introduces his work on Brown by writing: "In the late 1850s a new type of political assassin appeared in the United States. He did not murder the mighty—but the obscure. . . . his purposes were the same as those of his classic predecessors: to force the nation into a new political pattern by creating terror."[53]

Criminologist James N. Gilbert writes: "Brown's deeds conform to contemporary definitions of terrorism, and his psychological predispositions are consistent with the terrorist model."[54]

Novelist Bruce Olds calls him "fanatical, ... monomaniacal, ... a zealot, and ... psychologically unbalanced";

Journalist Ken Chowder states he is "stubborn ... egoistical, self-righteous, and sometimes deceitful; yet ... at certain times, a great man"; Chowder argues that Brown has been adopted by both left and right wing, and his actions "spun" to fit the world view of the spinner at various times in American history. "[50]

Malcolm X said that white people could not join his black nationalist Organization of Afro-American Unity, but "if John Brown were still alive, we might accept him."[55]

There was also the John Brown Revolutionary League organized in 1969 in Houston, Texas and worked along The People's Party II and MAYO as the Rainbow Coalition. Radical young groups from black, white and Chicano backgrounds working to better their communities. Both the People's Party II and John Brown Revolutionary League participated in an armed stand off against Houston police on July 26, 1970. Carl Hampton, Chairman of the People's Party II (later Black Panther Party) was killed in the battle. Bartee Haile, leader of the JBRL was also wounded. 400 mostly black supporters were arrested moments after the battle ended.[citation needed]

[edit] Visual portrayals

Question book-new.svg

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2011)

The two most noted screen portrayals of Brown have both been given by actor Raymond Massey. The 1940 film Santa Fe Trail, starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, depicted Brown completely unsympathetically as an out-and-out villainous madman, and Massey added to that impression by playing him with a constant, wild-eyed stare. The film gave the impression that it did not oppose African-American slavery, even to the point of having a black "mammy" character say, after an especially fierce battle, "Mr. Brown done promised us freedom, but... if this is freedom, I don't want no part of it". Massey portrayed Brown again in the little-known, low-budget Seven Angry Men, in which he was not only unquestionably the main character, but was depicted and acted in a much more restrained, sympathetic way.

Raymond Massey would also portray Brown on the Broadway stage, one of three characters he played in the acclaimed 1953 dramatic reading of Stephen Vincent Benet's epic poem John Brown's Body. Tyrone Power and Judith Anderson also starred in the production. In Book I of his epic poem, Benet called him a stone, "to batter into bits an actual wall and change the actual scheme of things."

Brown was also portrayed on film by John Cromwell in the 1940 Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Cromwell was the director of the film and was not credited in the role. Lincoln was played by Raymond Massey.

Singer Johnny Cash portrayed John Brown in Book I, Episode Five of the 1985 TV miniseries North and South. He is revered by character Virgilia Hazard (Kirstie Alley). During the Harpers Ferry episode, he exchanges brief words with character Orry Main (Patrick Swayze) and appears noble in his aims, but unrealistic.

Royal Dano portrayed John Brown in the 1971 western comedy Skin Game.

The progressive rock band Kansas uses the portrait of John Brown as the cover of their first album, 'Kansas', released in 1974.

Sterling Hayden also portrayed John Brown in the 1982 miniseries The Blue and the Gray.

In 1938–1940, American painter John Steuart Curry created Tragic Prelude, a mural of John Brown holding a gun and a Bible, in the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka, Kansas. In 1941, Jacob Lawrence illustrated the life of John Brown in The Legend of John Brown, a series of twenty-two gouache paintings. By 1977, the original paintings were in such fragile condition they could not be displayed, and the Detroit Institute of Arts commissioned Lawrence to recreate the series as a portfolio of silkscreen prints. The result was a limited edition portfolio of twenty-two hand-screened prints. The works were printed and published with a poem, John Brown, by Robert Hayden, which was commissioned specifically for the project. Though John Brown had been a popular topic for many painters, The Legend of John Brown was the first to explore the topic from an African American perspective.

.........

There was a "secret" meeting or "conference" of the U. S. Supreme Court on past Friday, December 9 - It is possible that a Certiorari was granted to SB 1070 and that will be announced on Next Monday, December 12 at 10 AM - Why that would not be wise !

2011-12-10T12:05:00.001-05:00

Nobody knows for sure if a Certiorari was granted on past Friday to the case "Arizona v. United States" that is "Papers Please" or SB 1070.

What is a Certiorari ??

A Certiorari is a writ from a higher court to a lower one requesting a transcript of the proceedings of a case for review.

The Supreme Court would require the lower court that is called "Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals" in San Francisco to produce the Injunction or Stay against certain provisions of SB 1070.

It would be wiser for the Supreme Court to wait for more jurisprudence produced in the different Circuits, because there are many suits, amicus briefs, oral discussions, etc in these courts relative to similar cases in Arizona, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and others.

These courts have highly respected judges with a great baggage or load of knowledge and study in the History of American Law and many court decisions of the past ( Consuetudinary Law or Custom ) and great knowledge of U. S. Congress Laws ( Statutory Law or Written Laws ).

The Wisdom and Knowledge of these Great Judges of the Circuits ( Lower Courts ) should not be despised.

The U. S. Supreme Court should not be a replacement for the U. S. Congress when there is a Political Gridlock and Congress is divided as in the present time. It is wise to wait for a new U. S. Congress.

And besides that there are many political developments : Russell Pearce, the author of SB 1070 was ousted in a recall election and Jan Brewer, Governor or Arizona is losing power and popularity. The Arizona Supreme Court is in Great Contradiction and Conflict with that Governor.

There is Great Opposition to SB 1070 in Arizona on the part of Mayors of very important cities, some city councils are opposed to it, as well as many county commissioners, and most important many Arizona sheriffs and Police Chiefs decry this law, Arizona business opposes this law and the community is divided.

All this produces political and economic developments that should not be ignored in a final decision about SB 1070.

This could drag for years and that is for the better of the American nation. !

Vicente Duque

.........

Pollster Nate Silver : Mitt Romney is already considered unacceptable by 41 percent of Republican voters, and his favorability ratings have been fading recently. Although he is still O.K. for now, he does not have all that much margin to spare

2011-12-09T18:24:00.000-05:00

The Self Destruction of the Republican Party, as seen by a Great Famous Pollster and Analyst of Numbers, Polls, Bets and Perceptions :

"Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich, might become unacceptable to a majority of the party depending on how nasty the nomination fight gets".

The New York Times
FiveThirtyEight
Nate Silver's Political Calculus
The Real G.O.P. Dark Horse: None of the Above
December 9, 2011

The Real G.O.P. Dark Horse: None of the Above

Some excerpts :

Mr. Gingrich has a fair amount of personal baggage and his favorability ratings were quite poor with Republican voters at points earlier in this cycle. He is now taking fire from all sides, including from Mr. Romney, from other candidates like Ron Paul and from portions of the conservative media.

But say that Mr. Gingrich survives this, as he certainly could. He wins Iowa and then either wins New Hampshire or finishes a respectable second there. He continues to lead in national polls of Republican voters, as he does now.

What happens then? One possibility — probably the most likely one — is that Mr. Gingrich wins South Carolina, wins Florida and holds on to win the Republican nomination.

But Mr. Gingrich might nevertheless be considered an unacceptable choice by much of the party establishment. That would put us in uncharted waters. There hasn’t really been a case in the past where a candidate who held the national polling lead after New Hampshire was considered unacceptable by the party elite. Most of the time, the establishment (as measured by endorsements) and the rank and file (as measured by support in national polls) have agreed upon a candidate by that point.

...........

I feel I am a delivery boy like FRY in FUTURAMA - FRY in that Television Cartoon is an idiot but he wants to do something big and meaningful, he has the problem of watching too much TV, drinking too much soft drinks and been lazy and foolish

2011-12-08T13:29:00.000-05:00

His best friend is rogue robot BENDER, almost a scoundrel, but at the end BENDER loves his human friends and can not live without them.

Like FRY I believe that we should do a good thing before we die.... FRY was a delivery boy of pizzas in December 31, 1999 before accidentally being sent by a freezing machine to December 31, 2999 and Happy New Year 3,000 - He was a loser and had a miserable life in 1999, in year 3,000 he travels around the Universe with his friends having great adventures, he is reinventing his life and trying not to be a loser this time.

We should deliver the World ( or the Universe ) in better shape when we die than what we found when we arrived.

Here is the First Glorious episode of FUTURAMA ( you can see them all here ) :

http://www.animefuel.com/futurama-season-1-episode-1/

.........

Vicente Duque

The Republican Candidates and their electors are in a game of Merry-Go-Round. - It is also a CAROUSEL or CARROUSEL ( usually with little horses for kids ), each week enjoy a new horse - Study of CAROUSELS, Jurassic Park Dinosaurs and Charlie's Chocolate Factory

2011-12-08T11:07:00.000-05:00

Willy Wonka should be the "General Secretary" of the Republican Party, with the help of the Oompa-Loompas that work in that factory, or use the Munchkins that received Dorothy after her house landed in the Magical Land of Oz ( and its wizard ).

Republican CAROUSELS in Children's Parks, Science, Technology, Political Dinosaurs and :

Definition in the "Free Dictionary" ( for CAROUSEL ) :

1. A merry-go-round, as one at an amusement park.

2. A circular conveyor on which objects are displayed or rotated: a baggage carousel in an airport.

3. A tournament in which knights or horsemen engaged in various exercises and races.

carousel

1. (Miscellaneous Technologies / Photography) a circular magazine in which slides for a projector are held: it moves round as each slide is shown

2. a rotating conveyor belt for luggage, as at an airport

3. the usual US and Canadian name for merry-go-round

4. (Historical Terms) History a tournament in which horsemen took part in races and various manoeuvres in formation

[from French carrousel, from Italian carosello, of uncertain origin]

The Republican Candidates are a CAROUSEL of Jurassic Park Dinosaurs.

This is also very similar to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", a 1964 children's book by British author Roald Dahl.

Everything is absurd in the Chocolate Factory, similar to the Republican Tea Party.

And thinking of the Republican Candidates in the Magic Land of OZ :

Who of them needs a heart, a brain, and courage to stand for Truth and Morality, instead of pandering to bigots and idiots ??

....

Vicente Duque

Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson indict Mitt Romney in a Court of Literary History : Read "A study in Scarlet", 1886, of Arthur Conan Doyle and find how detective Sherlock Holmes uncovered the evil doings of Mormons in Salt Lake City and Utah

2011-12-07T11:26:00.001-05:00

I read this novel as a child and was horrified by these Monster Mormons. The more I study these guys the more horrified I become by their wrongdoings, evil, historical racism and brutality.

They have been historical polygamists and the elders have castrated the young rivals and competitors for the sexual posession of young beautiful preadolescents.

Even Mitt Romney descends from brutalized ladies in polygamist harems.

*********************

This Religion was founded by a Con Man, a swindler, thief and liar. There were many court actions against this delinquent in his time. An abuser of Women and Violent Man.

Not to mention that Brigham Young was also an abuser of Women and despot in Salt Lake City Utah. Mormons also were perpetrators of massacres of White People ( Far West Pioneers ).

A "Study in Scarlet" of Sherlock Holmes : Mormons appear in this novel as Disgusting Repugnant Monsters.

"A Study in Scarlet" in Wikipedia

Some excerpts :

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, introducing his new character of Sherlock Holmes, who later became one of the most famous literary detective characters. He wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the next year. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes to his sidekick Doctor Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."[1]

Conan Doyle wrote the novel at the age of 27 in less than three weeks.[2] As a general practice doctor in Southsea, Portsmouth, he had already published short stories in several magazines of the day, such as the periodical London Society. The story was originally titled A Tangled Skein, and was eventually published by Ward Lock & Co. in Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887, after many rejections. The author received £25 in return for the full rights (although Conan Doyle had pressed for a royalty instead). It was illustrated by D. H. Friston. The novel was first published as a book on July 1888 by Ward, Lock & Co., and featured drawings by the author's father, Charles Doyle. A second edition appeared the following year and was illustrated by George Hutchinson; a year later in 1890, J. B. Lippincott & Co. released the first American version. Numerous further editions, translations and dramatisations have appeared since.

The story, and its main character, attracted little public interest when it first appeared. Only 11 complete copies of Beeton's Christmas Annual 1887 are known to exist now and they have considerable value.[3] Although Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories featuring Holmes, A Study in Scarlet is one of only four full-length novels in the original canon. The novel was followed by The Sign of Four, published in 1890. A Study in Scarlet was the first work of fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an investigative tool.[4]

1 Plot summary

1.1 Part I: "Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, MD, Late of the Army Medical Department"

1.2 Part II: "The Country of Saints"

2 Controversy

3 Allusions in other works

4 Adaptations

5 References

6 External links

******************************

Part II: "The Country of Saints"

The Mormon Nauvoo Legion, considerably overlapping with the Danites.

The story flashes back to 1847 Utah, where John Ferrier and a little girl named Lucy, the only survivors of a large party of pioneers, lie down near a boulder to die from dehydration and hunger. They are discovered, however, by a large party of Mormons, led by Brigham Young and the sacred Council of Four, to the "promised land". They rescue them on the condition that they adopt and live under the Mormon faith.

Having proven himself to be an able hunter, Ferrier is given a generous land grant with which to build his farm after the party constructs Salt Lake City. He and Lucy, now adopted by him, become famous around the city and surrounding areas. Years later, a now-grown Lucy runs into a man named Jefferson Hope, and becomes friends with him. They soon become engaged to be married, scheduled after Hope's return from a three-month long journey for his job.

However, Ferrier is visited by Young, who reveals that it is against the religion for Lucy to marry Hope, a non-Mormon. He states that Lucy must marry one of the eligible sons belonging to the Council of Four, either Joseph Stangerson or Enoch Drebber, though Lucy may choose which one. Ferrier and his daughter are given a month to decide. Ferrier, who has long before that sworn to never marry his daughter to a Mormon, immediately sends out word to Hope for help. Ferrier is then visited by Stangerson and Drebber. Angered by the way that they argue over who deserves to marry Lucy, Ferrier throws them out.

Every day, however, the number of days Ferrier has left to marry off Lucy is painted somewhere on his farm in the middle of the night. Hope finally arrives on the eve of the last day and sneaks his love and her adoptive father out of their farm and Salt Lake City. However, while he is gone hunting for food, Hope returns to a horrific sight; a makeshift grave for the elder Ferrier and Lucy nowhere to be seen.

Back to the Watson narrative, Holmes, Watson, and the two Scotland Yarders take a willing Hope to the police station. He asks if he can tell his story as he has an aortic aneurysm and fears he will die before his trial. He reveals that he sneaked back into the city and learned from an acquaintance that Lucy had been forcibly married to Drebber, who had more supporters in a hearing between him and Stangerson, Ferrier's murderer, over who would marry her. They also had put out a warrant for Hope's capture. He had returned to the mountains, swearing vengeance.

Lucy died a month later from a broken heart; Drebber, inheriting Ferrier's farm, was unaffected. Hope sneaked into his house the night before Lucy's funeral to kiss her and remove her wedding ring. He then began stalking the town, coming close to killing Drebber and Stangerson on numerous occasions.

However, his health began to fail him and he left the mountains to earn money and recuperate. He returned about a year later, and learned that Drebber and Stangerson, out of fear for their lives, had left Salt Lake City. He searched the United States until he finally found them in Cleveland; the pair then fled to Europe, eventually landing in London.

In London, Hope became a cabby, and eventually found Drebber and Stangerson at the train station in Euston, about to depart to Liverpool. Having missed the first train, Drebber instructs Stangerson to wait for him at the hotel, and then returns to Madame Charpentier's house. He is attacked by her son, and after escaping, he gets drunk at a liquor store. He is picked up by Hope, and is led to the house on Brixton Road, which Drebber drunkenly enters with Hope. He then forces Drebber to remember who he is and to take a pill out of a small box, allowing God to choose which one dies, for one was harmless and the other poison. Drebber takes the poisoned pill, and as he dies, Hope shows him Lucy's wedding ring. The excitement coupled with his aneurysm had caused his nose to bleed; he used it to write “RACHE” on the wall above Drebber.

He realized, upon returning to his cab, that he had forgotten Lucy’s ring; but upon returning to the house, he found Constable Rance and other police officers, whom he evaded by acting drunk. He then had a friend pose as an old lady to pick up the supposed ring from Holmes's advertisement.

He then began stalking Stangerson's room at the hotel; but Stangerson, on learning of Drebber's murder, refused to come out. He climbed into the room through the window, and gave Stangerson the same choice of pills but he was attacked by Stangerson and forced to stab him in the heart.

After being told of this, Holmes and Watson return to Baker Street; Hope dies from his aneurysm the night before his trial, a smile on his face. One morning, Holmes reveals to Watson how he had deduced the identity of the murderer and how he had used the Irregulars, whom he calls "street Arabs," to search for a cabby by that name. He then shows Watson the newspaper; Lestrade and Gregson are given full credit. Outraged, Watson states that Holmes should record the adventure and publish it. Upon Holmes's refusal, Watson decides to do it himself.

[edit] Controversy

According to a 1994 Salt Lake City newspaper article, when Conan Doyle was asked about his depiction of the Latter-day Saints' organization as being steeped in kidnapping, murder and enslavement, he said: "all I said about the Danite Band and the murders is historical so I cannot withdraw that, though it is likely that in a work of fiction it is stated more luridly than in a work of history. It's best to let the matter rest". However, Conan Doyle's daughter has stated: "You know, father would be the first to admit that his first Sherlock Holmes novel was full of errors about the Mormons". Years after Conan Doyle's death, Levi Edgar Young, a descendant of Brigham Young and a Mormon general authority, claimed that Conan Doyle had privately apologized, saying that "He [Conan Doyle] said he had been misled by writings of the time about the Church".[5]

In August 2011, the Albemarle County, Virginia School Board removed A Study in Scarlet from the district's sixth-grade reading lists following complaints from students and parents that the book was derogatory toward Mormons. It was therefore moved to the reading lists for the tenth-graders, and remains in use in the school media centers for all grades.[6]

.................

VIDEO, Obama looks to Teddy Roosevelt for inspiration, Today in small town Osawatomie Kansas, same speech as Teddy's one hundred years ago, Obama to slam Republicans as the Party to favor the Rich and exploit the poor

2011-12-06T10:21:00.001-05:00

Watch Teddy preaching against robber barons ( as President Obama ). Obama is claiming the Great American Center. Following the steps of a Great President.

Published on Dec 6, 2011 by CBSNewsOnline

CBS News senior White House correspondent Bill Plante has a preview of the speech President Obama is set to deliver in Kansas - one that will echo a famous speech by Teddy Roosevelt.

Obama looks to Teddy Roosevelt for inspiration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8lYF1N6yeE

.............

Who will buy Grandma's house ??, Likely a Latino Family - The total number of white non-Hispanic homeowners in California declined by 157,877 in the 2000s. In contrast, Latino homeowners increased by 383,778 over the decade, accounting for 78.5% of California’s total growth in homeownership

2011-12-05T15:24:00.000-05:00

Southern California Public Radio
Multi American
Who will buy grandma’s house? Likely a Latino family
By Leslie Berestein Rojas
July 12, 2011

Who will buy grandma’s house? Likely a Latino family

Some excerpts :

Who is going to buy your parents’ or grandparents’ house when they retire and downsize, or move out of state? According to a new study from the University of Southern California, there’s a good chance that the buyers will be Latino.

The report from the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development breaks down who has been selling homes in California and who has been buying them, using census data to illustrate a housing swap that is taking place between older white Americans and younger Latinos.

According to the report, California residents 75 and older have been selling off their homes in large numbers. In spite of this, the state has only experienced a 1 percent net drop in home ownership rates. Why? Largely because of the number of young Latino homeowners entering the market. From the report:

Older ages are pivotal for homeownership. On one hand, homeownership rates rise to a peak at age 65, but older age groups are about to lose large numbers of homeowners through moves out of state, shifts into renting or assisted living, and other life changes.

Analysis of the new census data shows us that attrition over the 2000s was a loss of 67% from the number of homeowners who had been ages 75 and older in 2000; losses were 26% of the number of homeowners who had been ages 65-74; and losses were nearly 10% among those ages 55-64.

…The cohort sell-off at older ages in the 2000s was not replaced by young cohorts of white home buyers. Young homeowners under age 45 had been a very prominent growth factor in the 1980s, growing by 975,104, but they grew more slowly in the 1990s (678,870) and slower again in the 2000s (543,797). This diminishing growth at young ages is not enough to cover the growing attrition of white homeowners at older ages. As a result, the total number of white non-Hispanic homeowners in California declined by 157,877 in the 2000s.

In contrast, Latino homeowners increased by 383,778 over the decade, accounting for 78.5% of California’s total growth in homeownership. It is young Latino home buyers, and also Asians, who have taken up the slack from diminished white demand. The new homeowners at young ages were 192,284 less than in the decade of the 1990s even though the sell-off by older homeowners was increasing. Latinos contributed 32.4% of the new homeowners at young ages during the 2000s, and they have potential to do much more.

.............

Housing Wire : Of 545,000 new household units in the third quarter of 2011, 53% were Hispanic households. The remaining 47%, or 257,000 units, consisted of other minority groups and non-Hispanic whites - November 28, 2011

2011-12-04T14:54:00.002-05:00

.
Housing Wire
Hispanic households grow, accounting for more than half of new homeowners
by JUSTIN T. HILL
November 28, 2011

Hispanic households grow, accounting for more than half of new homeowners

Some excerpts :

Hispanic households accounted for more than half of the nation's homeowners in the third quarter, evidence of the potential purchasing power of Latinos during the housing recovery.

According to Census Bureau data provided by Alejandro Becerra, former senior housing fellow at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, the number of Hispanic owner-occupiers grew by 288,000 from 6.21 million in the second quarter to 6.49 million in the third quarter.

Of 545,000 new household units in the third quarter, 53% were Hispanic households. The remaining 47%, or 257,000 units, consisted of other minority groups and non-Hispanic whites.

"We have to give due cause to Hispanic real estate professionals, to the many nonprofit groups out the that are trying to put into place the foreclosure prevention programs to keep people in their homes, to help new homebuyers," Becerra said. "All this is beginning to bear fruit in reaching out to these households."

..............

According to Fannie Mae's 2010 third-quarter housing survey, 61% of Hispanics said they expect their financial situation to get better over the next year, compared to 41% of all Americans and 57% of Hispanics consider owning a home a symbol of success whereas only 33% of all Americans feel that way.

..........

Mitt Romney, is now staking out a harsh position on immigration for the second straight presidential cycle, something of a landmark of consistency for him. He won’t be able to shake that positioning if he wins the nomination

2011-12-03T14:35:00.005-05:00

Newt Gingrich is considered a piñata that will implode giving lots of votes to other Republican Candidates in the Primaries. The attacks of Mitt Romney and other Republicans to Newt Gingrich on Immigration will cost a lot to the GOP in the General Election.

The New Republic
It’s Official: The Republican Primary Isn’t About the Economy, It’s About Immigration
By Ed Kilgore
November 29, 2011

It’s Official: The Republican Primary Isn’t About the Economy, It’s About Immigration

Some excerpts :

So why is a seasoned conservative ideologue like Newt Gingrich, who recently put forward a plan to offer a highly conditional “legalized” status to those certified as solid non-citizens by local panels, running the risk of saying anything on the subject other than “enforce the law”? It’s possible he’s trying to position himself to remain competitive with Hispanic voters in the general election, though that consideration hasn’t inhibited him from taking a variety of other positions that will cause problems if he happens to get the nomination. It’s more likely he thinks he’s found a sweet spot on immigration, whereby he can claim to oppose not only a “path to citizenship” but, just as importantly, deny public benefits to undocumented workers and their families (a key element of his plan) while avoiding the necessity of explaining how he’d deport 12 million people.

But if Gingrich was calculating no candidate for president would be irresponsible enough to come out for mass deportations, he was wrong, since Michele Bachmann has just done exactly that. And the firm distinction Newt has tried to draw between paths to citizenship (“amnesty,” to conservatives) and paths to legality may fall on deaf ears: Nativist chieftain and Iowa GOP potentate Steve King has already assigned the dreaded A-word to Gingrich’s proposal, in tandem with his opponents.

Whether or not Newt becomes the latest GOP candidate to fall on his sword on account of its stance on immigration, the attention being paid to the issue will undoubtedly fan the flames of anti-immigrant sentiment among conservatives and drive the entire field into ever-more-passionate denunciations of law-breaking Hispanics and their scandalous looting of the public treasury. The candidate most likely to benefit from a Gingrich implosion, Mitt Romney, is now staking out a harsh position on immigration for the second straight presidential cycle, something of a landmark of consistency for him. He won’t be able to shake that positioning if he wins the nomination. All in all, Team Romney and the entire GOP may regret they didn’t choose to whack Gingrich on global climate change.

............

Charles Krauthammer : "Republicans would have been better served by the candidacies of Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan or Chris Christie. Unfortunately, none is running. You play the hand you’re dealt. This is a weak Republican field with two significantly flawed front-runners contesting an immensely important election"

2011-12-02T14:01:00.001-05:00

A Super Conservative slams the Republican Candidates. Krauthammer says :

"If Obama wins, he will take the country to a place from which it will not be able to return (which is precisely his own objective for a second term)".

"Every conservative has thus to ask himself two questions: Who is more likely to prevent that second term? And who, if elected, is less likely to unpleasantly surprise?"

Washington Post
Charles Krauthammer
Mitt vs. Newt
December 1, 2011

Mitt Romney vs. Newt Gingrich

...........

Scotus Blog : On December 9, the Justices of the U. S. Supreme Court will consider the Arizona petition of Certiorari for Arizona v. United States: S.B. 1070 ( that the court reviews the case ) during their private Conference

2011-12-01T12:15:00.003-05:00

My own comment and personal opinion : It would be very wise of the Supreme Court Justices to delay the Certiorari for SB 1070 - Who wants to review a case that is a hot potato to burn your hands ??, who wants to play with a political ticking bomb ?? What is the good of a positive or negative decision in the midst of a Big Presidential Campaign and Election ??.

Any decision will infuriate a Big Part of the Electorate and may strongly influence People's Perceptions of the Importance of this Issue of Immigration, influencing the elections.

On the other hand the Result of the 2012 Elections can lead to changes in the composition of the Supreme Court. So a decision during the first 10 months of 2012 may not be FINAL, but can be changed later by a new court.

Scotus Blog
Supreme Court Issues
Kali Borkoski - Her Forum of Legal Experts on SB 1070
November 30, 2011

Kali Borkoski - Her Forum of Legal Experts on SB 1070

Some excerpts :

Arizona v. United States, which we have previously discussed in the Community; several experts also weighed in on the case during our symposium this summer. On December 9, the Justices will consider the petition during their private Conference. If the Justices act on Arizona’s petition, we could know as soon as December 12 whether the Court will hear the case. The question that Arizona has presented in its petition is whether federal immigration laws preclude Arizona’s efforts at cooperative law enforcement and impliedly preempt four provisions of its controversial immigration law, S.B. 1070, on their face.

.........

-------------

Kali Borkoski :

There are strong views on both sides of the policy debate as to whether SB 1070 is good or bad. Although the Court may not overtly decide the case on the basis of what it views to be the wiser policy outcome, discuss whether you view the law as good policy and, either way, whether you think the Justices’ intuition on the same question may play some role in their ultimate decision.

.........

BBC : According to United Nations : Peru and Colombia, Two countries that are close allies of the United States reduce poverty - But we should not interpret these as good news for American conservatives or liberals

2011-11-30T12:50:00.002-05:00

These are not good news for the Right or Left in the USA or Europe. ..... Because these Latin Nations use a mixture of Conservative and Liberal Ideas in their Economies. They are experimenting and are somewhat eclectic ( using all tools ) to see if they can progress.

Their rate of progress is moderate and they are surviving the World Economic Crisis, however these are not the "Asian Tigers" that grew at rates of 9% or 10%. Latin nations have more moderate growths.

The Recent "Conservative" triumph in Spain's Elections does not mean that Conservatism is the Wave of the Future and that Liberalism is foolish.

British Broadcasting Corporation BBC
United Nations economic body for Latin America
Latin America poverty level lowest in 20 years, says UN
November 30, 2011

Latin America poverty level lowest in 20 years, says UN

Some excerpts :

Poverty in Latin America is at its lowest level for 20 years, the UN's regional economic body, Eclac, says.

From 1990 to 2010, the rate fell from 48.4% to 31.4%, which means 177 million people currently live in poverty.

Eclac says the main reason for the reduction in poverty and inequality is the rise in household incomes.

But progress is hindered by the big gaps between productive and better paid sectors and work that is poorly paid and of low productivity, Eclac says.

"Poverty and inequality continue to decline in the region, which is good news, particularly in the midst of an international economic crisis," said Alicia Barcena, Eclac's executive secretary.

"However, this progress is threatened by the yawning gaps in the productive structure in the region and by the labour markets which generate employment in low-productivity sectors."

According to Eclac's report, Social Panorama of Latin America 2011, the rate of extreme poverty or indigence also fell from 22.6% to 12.3%.

The body forecasts that by the end of the year, 174 million people will be classed as living in poverty.

However, a rise in food price is set to see the indigence rate increase slightly to 12.8%.

..........

HuffPost : Mitt Romney Needs Early 2012 Knockout To Avoid Extended GOP Primary - Why it will be mathematically impossible for Romney -- or anyone -- to eliminate opponents early on. Extended Fight will harm Romney's chances for the Presidency

2011-11-27T12:53:00.003-05:00

Things look uphill for Mitt Romney :

Probably he won't pitch a shutout in the first four contests, so the competition inside the Republican Party will drag on.

Huffington Post
Mitt Romney Needs Early 2012 Knockout To Avoid Extended GOP Primary
By Jon Ward and Mark Blumenthal
November 27, 2011

Mitt Romney Needs Early 2012 Knockout To Avoid Extended GOP Primary

Some excerpts :

WASHINGTON -- The first two months of 2012 represent Mitt Romney's best chance to deliver a knockout blow in the Republican presidential primary.

If he cannot do so, he could be in for a drawn-out primary similar to the 2008 Democratic race.

The conventional wisdom has been that the primary will likely be decided on Jan. 31 in Florida, which goes fourth in the series of caucuses and primaries, and is the most expensive contest. Some think Romney could end things in Iowa on Jan. 3 if he wins those caucuses convincingly. Even if he places second or third there but goes on to win New Hampshire on Jan. 10, South Carolina on Jan. 21 and Florida, many think those victories could create the impression of inevitability.

But the 2012 primary calendar is heavily back-loaded, with major states such as California and New York going much later in the process than in 2008 and far fewer delegates up for grabs through Super Tuesday. In fact, the altered calendar will create the most spread-out contest since the 1970s. And more states than in the past will award delegates based on each candidates' portion of the vote, rather than all of a state's delegates going to the winner of the popular vote. All together, it will be mathematically impossible for Romney -- or anyone -- to eliminate opponents early on.

On the other hand, none of Romney's primary opponents appear capable of uniting the party's fractured conservative base and simultaneously convincing the rest of the GOP that they can win a general election match-up with Obama. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is currently surfing a wave of momentum, but he has a long record to attack, a troubled personal past and little organization compared to other campaigns, especially Romney's.

But given the strong anti-Romney sentiment still surging through portions of the Republican Party -- combined with the fact that the race for delegates between Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton in 2008 educated the public and the press about the importance of electoral math over an impression of momentum -- it's questionable whether Romney can clear the field early on and cruise to victory.

If Romney doesn't blow his competition away in January, he will still likely do very well in the contests between Florida and Super Tuesday on March 6.

The February states are Maine, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota, Missouri, Arizona and Michigan. In 2008, Romney won all but Arizona, which was John McCain's home state.

Yet, mathematically, it will be hard for Romney to argue after January and February that he is the putative nominee.

............

"It’s possible that Obama’s polling strength is slightly depressed right now. With the election a year out, he’s been largely judged in a vacuum against either an ideal version of himself or against a “generic” Republican in voters’ minds up to this point"

2011-11-26T17:04:00.000-05:00

No need to be obsessed with Dangers to Obama's Reelection : Swing States are not Dragons or Monsters, they also have Working Women, Educated Women, Youngsters, Educated People with College Educations, Gays, Lesbians, etc ...

Swing States do not vote, it is people, those that vote are human beings.

There is a lot of obsession and fear in Democratic Circles about the White Working Class that may refuse to vote for Obama, and that is OK and a strategy is needed to counter that problem, but think of the strength that Obama may have with Women in General ( Women's Abortion Rights ) and with Gays, Lesbians, etc .... not to mention Minorities where he will excel !

Talking Points Memo
The Road To 270: Team Obama Maps Out Their Victory Plan
By Benjy Sarlin
November 25, 2011

The Road To 270: Team Obama Maps Out Their Victory Plan

Some excerpts :

But the demographic trends that buoyed Obama in 2008 — namely, a growing base of Hispanic voters, and an influx of educated professionals into the South — have only gotten stronger. At the liberal Center for American Progress, Ruy Teixeira and John Halpin recently put out a detailed study analyzing Obama’s strengths among the three most distinct major voting groups: minorities, college-educated whites, and whites with lower levels of education. Obama’s strength in the last presidential election was his ability to rack up huge margins and turnout with the first group, split the vote with the second, and keep the third from becoming a total wipeout. And because the share of the electorate in 2012 is likely to include more minority voters and more college educated voters, he has more leeway to underperform with white voters and still win re-election.

.................

But as Romney looks more and more like a general election nominee, voters seem to be warming to Obama a bit. His approval ratings are slowly ticking back up from their summer lows and there are signs his more populist message is gaining traction. A recent poll of swing states by Purple Strategies showed Obama improving his position into a tie with Romney, even as he still faces dangerously low approval ratings.

..............

VIDEO, Rick Horowitz, comedian, the great master of sarcasm laughs at Rick Perry's brain freeze and at the emptiness of Michelle Bachmann and Herman Cain - Very fine humor, high quality sarcasm - Enjoy !

2011-11-25T16:54:00.001-05:00

.

What Was That Third Thing Again?

Uploaded by yesrick on Nov 12, 2011

Rick Perry has a brain freeze.
Rick Horowitz has a suggestion.

What Was That Third Thing Again?

**********************

Gamblers, Bettors and Bookies : Barack Obama to be re-elected President in 2012 : 51.0% - Mitt Romney be the Republican Presidential nominee : 64.6% - Newt Gingrich to be Republican Presidential Nominee 15.1%

2011-11-24T14:36:00.002-05:00

.
Event : US Supreme Court to rule individual mandate unconstitutional before midnight ET 31 Dec 2012 : 40.5% chance.

Event : The US Economy will go into Recession during 2012 : 44.0% chance.

So you have to bet 51 dollars to win 100 dollars if Obama is reelected.

See more chances in INTRADE.COM

..........

William Galston : "Mortgage debt is at the core of the failure to recover and grow briskly enough to bring down unemployment. If elites can’t figure out how to fix this problem, average Americans will pay the price"

2011-11-22T12:19:00.001-05:00

"Conversely, nothing would do more to benefit working Americans. Is the president prepared to take the lead? And if he does, will anyone follow?"

The New Republic
What Does the Super Committee’s Failure Mean For Obama’s Reelection Campaign?
November 22, 2011

By William Galston
William Galston is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a contributing editor for The New Republic.

What Does the Super Committee’s Failure Mean For Obama’s Reelection Campaign?

Some excerpts :

To that end, the alternative—higher risk, higher reward—strategy is for Obama to offer a much more specific program than he has up to now, making clear how he would combine stimulus over the next year or two with a plan to place the budget on a sustainable course by the end of the decade. That would mean organizing his 2012 State of the Union and budget proposal around two issues—bold new measures to spur consumption and job creation, coupled with a long-term budget plan that combines the best features of the Bowles-Simpson and Domenici-Rivlin plans.

This may sound like unconvincing boiler-plate: What bold new growth measures? Well, here’s an idea ripped from an article by Adam Posen:

Central banks and governments can engage in forms of coordinated action that will target the burden of past debts that is hanging over the global economy. In the United States, that means resolving the distressed mortgage debt that is weakening our financial system and reducing labor mobility, thereby constraining not only our growth but also our ability to grow. It is time for the Federal Reserve and elected officials to jointly tackle that housing debt.

Posen is the latest in a lengthening list of leading economists across the ideological spectrum to finger mortgage debt as the core of our failure to recover and grow briskly enough to bring down unemployment. If elites can’t figure out how to fix this problem, average Americans will pay the price. Conversely, nothing would do more to benefit working Americans. Is the president prepared to take the lead? And if he does, will anyone follow?

.........

The economic situation seems very grave in Europe, and we should not delight in SchadenFreude ( joy of the suffering of others ) because Europe can do a lot of harm to all of us. I mean a European Depression will devastate other continents with economic stress

2011-11-21T17:33:00.001-05:00

There are cases in which competition leads us to suicide, while collaboration makes everybody richer. This is true for individuals and for nations.

I do not have the solution for the Europeans. But there is no reason why we should not be concerned about Europe.

My heart feels for all the Europeans that are out of work and suffering the stress of big government cuts when they are more harming ( being unemployed ! )

My best wishes for Europe, specially the Southern Europeans. I do not blame prime ministers, government officials or nations. I hope for Euro Recovery.

And yes, I want the Euro to survive as an important currency with high value, and I wish that the European Union becomes stronger and stronger and does not dissolve.

The Western Hemisphere : let's hope that things evolve for the better and that the American Economy improves in all matters including Employment and New Jobs.

Perhaps it is possible to become more conciliatory and less aggressive, so that solutions can be found. Otherwise the elections of November 2012 will make the decision.

Vicente Duque

........

Paul Krugman : Barring an evil miracle, the super committee will fail. One side is willing to make concessions, while the other isn’t, and the result is that the G.O.P. pays no price for refusing to give an inch. So the supercommittee will fail — and that’s good

2011-11-19T10:05:00.000-05:00

.
The New York Times
Failure Is Good
By PAUL KRUGMAN
November 17, 2011

Failure Is Good

Some excerpts :

For one thing, history tells us that the Republican Party would renege on its side of any deal as soon as it got the chance. Remember, the U.S. fiscal outlook was pretty good in 2000, but, as soon as Republicans gained control of the White House, they squandered the surplus on tax cuts and unfunded wars. So any deal reached now would, in practice, be nothing more than a deal to slash Social Security and Medicare, with no lasting improvement in the deficit.

Also, any deal reached now would almost surely end up worsening the economic slump. Slashing spending while the economy is depressed destroys jobs, and it’s probably even counterproductive in terms of deficit reduction, since it leads to lower revenue both now and in the future. And current projections, like those of the Federal Reserve, suggest that the economy will remain depressed at least through 2014. Better to have no deal than a deal that imposes spending cuts in the next few years.

But don’t we eventually have to match spending and revenue? Yes, we do. But the decision about how to do that isn’t about accounting. It’s about fundamental values — and it’s a decision that should be made by voters, not by some committee that allegedly transcends the partisan divide.

Eventually, one side or the other of that divide will get the kind of popular mandate it needs to resolve our long-run budget issues. Until then, attempts to strike a Grand Bargain are fundamentally destructive. If the supercommittee fails, as expected, it will be time to celebrate.

........