No Justice for the African-Americans Targeted by White Vigilantes After the Katrina Flooding

By Liliana Segura

Journalist A.C. Thompson discusses his groundbreaking piece on the white men who roamed post-Katrina New Orleans shooting African Americans.

In the days after Hurricane Katrina swept through Louisiana and Mississippi, the bodies of African American men began to turn up on the streets. But these weren't the bloated corpses of drowned Gulf residents whose images were beamed around the world. Instead, their nameless bodies contained bullet holes, slain at the hands of persons unknown. Read more...


Listen to and read the transcript from DemocracyNow!

• Katrina's Hidden Race War: In Aftermath of Storm, White Vigilante Groups Shot 11 African Americans in New Orleans

People 'still willing to torture'

Decades after a notorious experiment, scientists have found test subjects are still willing to inflict pain on others - if told to by an authority figure.

US researchers repeated the famous "Milgram test", with volunteers told to deliver electrical shocks to another volunteer - played by an actor.

Even after faked screams of pain, 70% were prepared to increase the voltage, the American Psychology study found. Read more...

The milgram experiment(Animated)[10SG]

Latin Leaders Rebuke U.S.

Truthdig

In a summit that celebrated the absence of the U.S. on its guest list, Latin American leaders met in Brazil to discuss a post-U.S. hegemonic world. The talks, which centered on the “demise” of the capitalist model, also snubbed former colonizing nations Portugal and Spain in a further demonstration of the increasing political autonomy of the region. Read more...

Related story

• US is down, but not out, in Latin America
• Bush Excluded by Latin Summit as China, Russia Loom

Scientists find hole in Earth's magnetic field

Recent satellite observations have revealed the largest breach yet seen in the magnetic fieldthat protects Earth from most of the sun's violent blasts, researchers reported Tuesday. The discovery was made last summer by Themis, a fleet of five small NASA satellites.

Scientists have long known that the Earth's magnetic field, which guards against severe space weather, is similar to a drafty old house that sometimes lets in violent eruptions of charged particles from the sun. Such a breach can cause brilliant auroras or disrupt satellite and ground communications. Read more...

Poll: 37% of Americans Unable to Locate America on Map of America

Steven Shehori

According to a Gallup/Harris poll released Monday, a full 37 percent of American citizens are incapable of identifying their home country on a map of the United States. Read more...

Israel's 'Crime Against Humanity'

By Chris Hedges

Israel’s siege of Gaza, largely unseen by the outside world because of Jerusalem’s refusal to allow humanitarian aid workers, reporters and photographers access to Gaza, rivals the most egregious crimes carried out at the height of apartheid by the South African regime. It comes close to the horrors visited on Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serbs. It has disturbing echoes of the Nazi ghettos of Lodz and Warsaw. Read more...

Study: U.S. Media Keep People Uneducated About Health Issues

By Sarah Seltzer

"Blaming the media" is a catchphrase that is used in almost cliché-level proportions. But when it comes to health care, a new study (Pew Research) indicates it may be appropriate to fault media coverage for a lack of public knowledge about health care policy -- and by extension, the false perception of reproductive rights as ideological "hot rods" rather than women's health concerns. Read more...

Amnesty Warns Against 'Potentially Lethal' Tasers

by Agence France Presse

Amnesty International warned Tuesday against a proliferation of Taser stun guns, saying they were responsible for dozens of deaths in the United States and should only be used in extreme cases.

In a report entitled "'Less than lethal?' The use of stun weapons in US law enforcement," the London-based human rights group urged governments to either limit their deployment to life-threatening situations or to suspend their use. Read more...

Natural Disaster Areas in America

Thinking about relocating? Forget the proximity of good schools, trendy shopping and green space. You might want to take a look at a new “hazard map” of the U.S., which spells out by geographic region the likelihood of dying from floods, earthquakes or other natural dangers.

Geographers from the University of South Carolina in Columbia determined how common deaths from natural hazards were in different regions of the country, using information from the Spatial Hazard Event and Loss Database, which culls deaths and economic losses from weather in the U.S. They examined 11 categories of hazards between 1970 and 2004: winter weather (such as frigid temps and blizzards), mass movements (such as landslides and avalanches), coastal and geophysical events (such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis), flooding, heat and drought, hurricanes and tropical storms, lightning, severe weather (combinations of hail, wind and rain), tornadoes and wildfires. Deaths clustered most in the South, where tornadoes, lightning and severe weather wrought havoc, according to the study published in today's International Journal of Health Geographics. In mountainous western states, winter weather, severe weather and flooding were responsible for the bulk of deaths, and in the south-central U.S., heat and drought, tornados and flooding were most lethal. Read more...

Natural hazards aren’t among the government's top 10 causes of death. Heart disease, cancer and stroke are the big three.

Map from Spatial patterns of natural hazards mortality in the United States, International Journal of Health Geographics

Africa, AFRICOM and Proxy Imperialism

by Mark P. Fancher

Imperialism ain't easy. Times change, and the neocolonial exploiters have to stay on their toes. They must encourage "the illusion of independence" in the formerly colonized world, the better to maintain effective economic control. "Enter Africa Command - better known as AFRICOM," whose "mission is to conduct ‘sustained security engagement through military-to-military programs, military-sponsored activities, and other military operations as directed to promote a stable and secure African environment in support of U.S. foreign policy. The key phrase is, of course "in support of U.S. foreign policy," a point that has not been lost on African nations. Read more...

Black Women Struggle in Criminal Justice System

James Wright

Adult women are the fastest growing group in regards to incarceration. The number of female prisoners rose at a faster rate (4.8 percent) than the number of male prisoners (2.7 percent), according to a study, "Prison and Jail Inmates" conducted by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Statistics (BJS) in 2006. In that report, the BJS said that there were 111,400 female prisoners in federal and state prisons.

The report noted that the percent increase in female prisoners was almost twice that of male prisoners.

Black women make up a larger share of their gender incarcerated than in any other group. Read more...

Report: U.S. Housing Still Segregated

U.S. housing is still racially segregated 40 years after civil rights laws to end unfair practices, which also contributed to the subprime mortgage crisis, according to a recent repor.

The National Commission on Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, which hopes to get a good hearing from President-elect Barack Obama, the first black U.S. president, also said a new agency was required to enforce laws passed by Congress in 1968 that too often have been ignored.

"When the rules break down in something as fundamental as where you can live ... our system doesn't work," said Henry Cisneros, a former secretary for housing and urban development under President Bill Clinton. Read more...

Blacks Last Hired, First Fired at NPR - Farewell to News & Notes

Jasmine Cannick

The announcement by National Public Radio that it plans to cut its only African-American themed show “New & Notes” in 2009 came both as a shock and a huge disappointment. Shock because on the eve of America swearing in its first ever Black president, you’d think that NPR would see the relevance in having a show like “News & Notes” on the air, especially given all of the outstanding coverage that they provided during the primary and general election. Disappointment, because the show’s cancellation is just another sign that it’s not safe out there for Black journalists…anywhere.

NPR had many choices on where to make cuts and instead of perhaps scaling “News & Notes” from five times a week back to three, they decided to cancel it all together. Read more....

The Criminalization of US Foreign Policy

by Michel Chossudovsky

From the Truman Doctrine to the Neo-Conservatives

1. The contemporary context

The World is at the crossroads of the most serious crisis in modern history. The US has embarked on a military adventure, "a long war", which threatens the future of humanity.

At no point since the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th, 1945, has humanity been closer to the unthinkable, a nuclear holocaust which could potentially spread, in terms of radioactive fallout, over a large part of the Middle East.

There is mounting evidence that the Bush Administration, in liaison with Israel and NATO, is planning the launching of a nuclear war against Iran, ironically, in retaliation for Tehran's nonexistent nuclear weapons program. The US-Israeli military operation is said to be in "an advanced state of readiness".

If such a plan were to be launched, the war would escalate and eventually engulf the entire Middle-East Central Asian region.

The war could extend beyond the region, as some analysts have suggested, ultimately leading us into a World War III scenario.

The US-led naval deployment (involving a massive deployment of military hardware) is taking place in two distinct theaters: the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The militarization of the Eastern Mediterranean is broadly under the jurisdiction of NATO in liaison with Israel. Directed against Syria, it is conducted under the façade of a UN "peace-keeping" mission. In this context, the Israeli led war on Lebanon last Summer, which was conducive to countless atrocities and the destruction of an entire country, must be viewed as a stage of the broader US sponsored military road-map.

2. Naval Buildup in the Persian Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean

3. The Ultimate War Crime: Using Nuclear Weapons in a Conventional War theater

4. The "War on Terrorism": Pretext to Wage War

5. The Real Objective Of This War Is Oil

6. Historical Background: From Hiroshima to the Preemptive Warfare Doctrine

7. America’s Wars of the "Post War Era"

8. Destroying Internationalism

9. From the Truman Doctrine to the Neo-Conservative

10. US War Crimes and Atrocities

11. Mechanisms of US Intervention

12. The Perdana Initiative: Reversing the Tide of War

Click to see larger image

Read more...

D.L. Hughley, the News, CNN, Kwanzaa and the Outright Brainwashing of Black People

The enemy to Black progress and liberation is wise and knows how to use media to manipulate the minds of the masses, particularly Blacks in America. Put a popular Blacks man face in front of the screen and make Blacks think equality and fairness has arrived when the opposite is true.

D.L. Hughley Breaks the News is a joke and slap in the face of Black people. The title alone is disrespectful to Black intelligence and a misnomer. CNN would like Blacks to believe that what they are receiving from D.L.'s show is news but it is not and he is not a journalist, he's a comedian and that is what you get when you watch his show; comedy, pure and simple. They use 'News' in the title for the less informed and educated among Black (and white) people.

I agree with Sis. Charlene Muhammad article below, that "Blacks in major broadcast television is crucial, especially now." But as far as D.L. Hughley Breaks the News or nothing - I choose nothing.

_____________________________________________

After watching Bro. D.L. Hughley's segment about Kwanzaa on CNN last night I thought it was too bad that I didn't take him and his producers with us. I understand the nature of comedy skits but I thought it was tragic that we have Dr. Karenga and many of the Brothers and Sisters of the Organization Us walking among us, as well as many of our other great warriors in the struggle, but we'd rather fumble around in the dark for a few dollars instead of contacting them for the basics about Kwanzaa and using the time given to really help inform our people.

After the misinformation, it would have been nice to have the founder of Kwanzaa either in studio or on the phone for his view and analysis of what he created in 1966.

But really, CNN's real motive for the show is materializing and I believe that's to ultimately use our brother as a comedic attack dog in this changing political climate to say what network officials really want to but will not be able to. It's an old trick but we keep falling for it.

Besides, can't we have two recurring black shows on CNN, or any other mainstream news network for that matter, at once? I don't believe that people want to see Bro. D.L. lose his show with CNN because more opportunities for Blacks in major broadcast television is crucial, especially now. When it's your time, it's your time and no one can take that away from you. But we have to ask why this type of content and why now?

Where is Roland Martin? What about Donna or Jamal or even Amy? Read more at: http://charlene.blogs.finalcall.com/2008/12/truth-about-kwanzaa.html

Racial Gap in Colon Cancer Deaths Is Widening

abc News

Gap in black and white colon cancer deaths has widened to almost 50 percent, report says

Colon and rectal cancer death rates are now nearly 50 percent higher in blacks than in whites, according to American Cancer Society research being released Monday. 

The gap has been growing since the mid-1970s, when colon cancer death rates for the two racial groups were nearly equal. 

Read more...

George Bush shoe thrower protest

Crowds of Iraqis call for the journalist who threw a shoe at President Bush to be released.

Few Blacks and Minorities In Obama Administration (Thus Far)

by: aaopublisher

President’s office/staff:

-- Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel (Deputies: Jim Messina, Mona Sutphen -Woman)

-- Senior Advisers: Valerie Jarrett Black, Peter Rouse, David Axelrod

-- Political Director: Patrick Gaspard

-- Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs: Phil Schiliro

-- White House Counsel: Greg Craig
-- Press Secretary: Robert Gibbs
-- Communications Director: Ellen Moran- Woman (Deputy: Dan Pfeiffer -- Director of Scheduling and Advance: Alyssa Mastromonaco Woman
-- Staff Secretary: Lisa Brown Black
-- Cabinet Secretary: Chris Lu Minority
-- Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary: Desirée Rogers Black Woman-- Director, White House Military Office: Louis Caldera

Vice President’s office:
-- Biden’s Chief of staff: Ron Klain
-- Counselor to the Vice President: Mike Donilon
-- Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President: Terrell McSweeny
-- Assistant to the Vice President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison: Evan Ryan

First Lady’s office:
-- Michelle Obama’s Chief of Staff: Jackie Norris Woman (Deputy: Melissa Winter-Woman)

CABINET MEMBERS:
-- Commerce: Bill Richardson Latino
-- Defense: Robert Gates
-- Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano Woman
-- Justice (AG): Eric Holder Black
-- State: Hillary Clinton Woman (Jim Steinberg-deputy
-- Treasury: Tim Geithner
-- Veterans Affairs: Eric Shinseki Minority
-- HHS: Tom Daschle
-- Energy: Steven Chu Minority

Read more...