Topics of the day:
Racist vigilantes terrorize Black citizens in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina
White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis & Skinheads tolerated in US armed forces
Palin's Racist Emails
Anti-Obama Hate Speech & Racism at Pro-Sarah Palin website :Team Sarah.org
anger, hatred & racism of the Palin/ McCain campaign still being fueled
Anyway Racism in America has not magically disappeared after the election of Barack Obama- in fact it may be on the rise and has become more dangerous as the White Supremacists in America play on the fear and paranoia of a segment of White Americans as The Republicans did for instance in their attacks on Obama during and since the election campaign. So here is a story about racist vigilantes in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and a story of the increasing numbers of White Supremacists and Neo-Nazis in the US Military.
Racism and Hurricane Katrina Vigilantes Shoot and Kill with Impunity- That's the American Way- Will President Elect Obama insist on investigations - If there is any validity to these reports than it is incumbent on the FBI and other agencies to investigate. But can the FBI or other organizations of the American government be trusted to carry out investigations honestly and with due diligence or will they just turn a blind eye. During the last eight years under the Bush Regime the activities of White Supremacists and other racist organizations have increased dramatically. There is therefore the real possibility that some White Supremacists have been allowed to infiltrate Law Enforcement agencies and various departments of the US government.
During Hurricane Katrina the Media exaggerated the number of crimes especially those committed by the Black inhabitants of New Orleans. Whenever a black person broke into a store to get bottled water and other necessities this was depicted as looting and lawlessness. When white inhabitants were seen doing the same thing it was called an act of desperation on their part in order to survive and so they were forgiven.
But to the Media the wilder the story of lawlessness the better whether or not the story was true. The Media in the US of course is for the most part rather racist in their attitudes towards all non-whites. But it is also a matter of getting better ratings so black people looting gets higher ratings than a story about black people suffering from dehydration left stranded in New Orleans by the inept Bush Regime. And Americans in general were fed up with stories about New Orleans after just a few weeks.
Many Americans being a bit naive of course just don't want to believe that a significant proportion of their citizens and those in authority or in the media are racists.
Just look how nasty and ugly the McCain/Palin campaign became while those in the Media like the Fox News propagandists helped to fuel the anger by calling Obama a domestic terrorist, a Secret Muslim and not " A Real American".
Conservative media personalities such as the stars of Hate Radio & Hate TV Glenn Beck, O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter ,Michael Savage, Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity etc. are still pandering to the racists and hate mongers and helping to divide Americans and to divide the country. And if Hate Crimes against blacks and Hispanics or Asians are on the rise they just say So What? They dismiss such crimes as being exaggerated and so in their view are just another way that these minority communities get to play the victim .
A new report in The Nation documents what many have claimed for years -- for some Black New Orleanians the threat of being killed by White vigilantes in Katrina's aftermath became a bigger threat than the storm itself.
After the storm, White vigilantes roamed Algiers Point shooting and, according to their own accounts, killing Black men at will- with no threat of a police response. For the last three years, the shootings and the police force's role in them have been an open secret to many New Orleanians. To date, no one has been charged with a crime and law enforcement officials have refused to investigate.
The facts are finally seeing the light of day. Now we must demand action. Given Louisiana's horrible record when it comes to criminal justice and Black folks, it's the only path to justice.
...In the two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the media created a climate of fear with trumped-up stories of Black lawlessness. Meanwhile, an armed group of White vigilantes took over the Algiers Point neighborhood in New Orleans and mercilessly hunted down Black people. "It was great!" said one vigilante. "It was like pheasant season in South Dakota. If it moved, you shot it."
The Nation's article tells the story of Donnell Herrington, Marcel Alexander, and Chris Collins -- a group of friends who were attacked by shotgun-wielding White men as they entered Algiers Point on September 1, 2005. As they tried to escape, Herrington recalls, their attackers shouted, "Get him! Get that nigger!" He managed to get away. Alexander and Collins were told that they would be allowed to live on the condition that they told other Black folks not to come to Algiers Point. Herrington, shot in the neck, barely survived.
And there's the story of Henry Glover, who didn't survive after being shot by an unknown assailant. 2 Glover's brother flagged down a stranger for help, and the two men brought Glover to a police station. But instead of receiving aid, they were beaten by officers while Henry Glover bled to death in the back seat of the stranger's car. A police officer drove off in the car soon afterward. Both Glover's body and the car were found burnt to cinders a week later. It took DNA analysis to identify the body.
Then there's the story of White militiamen who tried to drive their Black neighbors from their homes. Reggie Bell, who lived just two blocks down the street from the vigilantes' ringleader, was told at gunpoint, "We don't want you around here. You loot, we shoot." Later, another group of armed White men confronted him at his home, asking, "Whatcha still doing around here? We don't want you around here. You gotta go."
Racist Extremists Tolerated in US Military
" Racial Extremists Are Infiltrating the Military for the Chance to 'Kill a Brown"
By David Holthouse, Intelligence Report. Dec. 15, 2008 New evidence suggests that white supremacists are taking advantage of lowered recruiting standards to enter the armed services.
...Two years ago, the Intelligence Report revealed that alarming numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacist extremists were taking advantage of lowered armed services recruiting standards and lax enforcement of anti-extremist military regulations by infiltrating the U.S. armed forces in order to receive combat training and gain access to weapons and explosives.
Forty members of Congress urged then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to launch a full-scale investigation and implement a zero-tolerance policy toward white supremacists in the military. "Military extremists present an elevated threat to both their fellow service members and the public," U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican, wrote in a separate open letter to Rumsfeld. "We witnessed with Timothy McVeigh that today's racist extremist may become tomorrow's domestic terrorist."
But neither Rumsfeld nor his successor, Robert Gates, launched any sort of systemic investigation or crackdown. Military and Defense Department officials seem to have made no sustained effort to prevent active white supremacists from joining the armed forces or to weed out those already in uniform.
Furthermore, new evidence is emerging that not only supports the Intelligence Report's original findings, but also indicates the problem may have worsened since the summer of 2006, as enlistment rates have continued to plummet, and the military has struggled to meet recruitment goals in a time of unpopular war. Asked about the latest developments, military officials this fall declined to comment.
A new FBI report confirms that white supremacists are infiltrating the military for several reasons. According to the unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel Since 9/11," which was released to law enforcement agencies nationwide: "Sensitive and reliable source reporting indicates supremacist leaders are encouraging followers who lack documented histories of neo-Nazi activity and overt racist insignia such as tattoos to infiltrate the military as 'ghost skins,' in order to recruit and receive training for the benefit of the extremist movement."
...The FBI report details more than a dozen investigative findings and criminal cases involving Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as well as active-duty personnel engaging in extremist activity in recent years. For example, in September 2006, the leader of the Celtic Knights, a central Texas splinter faction of the Hammerskins, a national racist skinhead organization, planned to obtain firearms and explosives from an active duty Army soldier in Fort Hood, Texas. That soldier, who served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, was a member of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group.
"Looking ahead, current and former military personnel belonging to white supremacist extremist organizations who experience frustration at the inability of these organizations to achieve their goals may choose to found new, more operationally minded and operationally capable groups," the report concludes. "The military training veterans bring to the movement and their potential to pass this training on to others can increase the ability of lone offenders to carry out violence from the movement's fringes."
In May, Army Cpl. Adrian Petty, a member of the Vinlanders Social Club (VSC) skinhead gang, posted several photos to his MySpace page showing himself in uniform serving in Iraq. One, depicting him riding in a Humvee, was captioned, "On Another VSC Recruiting Mission."
One of the Blood & Honour members claiming to be an active-duty soldier taking part in combat operations in Iraq identified himself to Kennard as Jacob Berg. He did not disclose his rank or branch of service. "There are actually a lot more 'skinheads,' 'nazis,' white supremacists now [in the military] than there has been in a long time," Berg wrote in an E-mail exchange with Kennard. "Us racists are actually getting into the military a lot now because if we don't every one who already is [in the military] will take pity on killing sand niggers. Yes I have killed women, yes I have killed children and yes I have killed older people. But the biggest reason I'm so proud of my kills is because by killing a brown many white people will live to see a new dawn."
and it appears the military is engaged in a cover up of the activities of white racist extremists in the US military serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
...the Army's Criminal Investigative Division investigative reports concerning white supremacist activity in 2006 and 2007. They show that Army commanders repeatedly terminated investigations of suspected extremist activity in the military despite strong evidence it was occurring. This evidence was often provided by regional Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which are made up of FBI and state and local law enforcement officials.
for instance:
Another report, also from 2006, covers an investigation of another Fort Hood soldier who was posting messages on Stormfront.org, a major white supremacist website. One CID investigator expresses his frustration at the muddled process for dealing with extremists. "We need to discuss the review process," he writes. "I'm not doing my job here. Needs to get fixed."
And more on Sarah Palin's possible connections to racist' sentiments before and after the campaign.
Racist Emails On State Of Alaska Accounts: A Palin Connection? Black Star News.com by Geoffrey Dunn, Dec. 20, 2008
( Also at Huffington Post )
A series of racist emails sent out on State of Alaska email accounts have targeted President-elect Barack Obama.
In one, the concluding line assessed Obama’s victory and impending move to the White House as: "Another black living in government housing!"
According to the Associated Press, three of the racist messages were confirmed by the state's information technology division after an electronic search of the government's e-mail system, Administration Commissioner Annette Kreitzer said Wednesday.
One of the emails, entitled "Night Befo Crizzmus," was forwarded dozens of times.
Whether Governor Sarah Palin had knowledge of the emails in advance of the AP story is uncertain. She has so far not commented on the email. Her spokesperson, Bill McAllister, who is of African American descent, indicated that there was an ongoing investigation and has "nothing to do with the governor's office."
But sources that I have spoken to in Alaska acknowledge that there is a pervasive "atmosphere of racism" throughout pockets of state government. "You hear it all the time," said one. "It’s accepted as part of normal conversation. No one can be surprised by this."
Palin’s failure to condemn the emails immediately is troubling—but not out of character. When supporters at her rallies shouted out threats about Obama, such as "kill him" or "off with his head," she similarly failed to condemn such outbursts at the time.
Palin has long had strained relations with Alaska’s African American community.
"Blacks don’t have the levels of access to the governor and state commissioners as with past administrations," said African American attorney Rex Butler and an Alaska resident since 1983. "It seems the posture of (Palin’s) administration with Blacks is: Don’t need them, don’t worry about them."
During the presidential campaign, Gwendolyn Alexander, the president of Alaska’s African-American Historical Society, detailed controversies such as Palin’s staffing practices, Palin allegedly stating she "doesn’t have to hire any Blacks" for major projects and her refusal to attend that state’s major African-American celebration – Juneteenth. "Gov. Palin was the first governor not to send out a congratulatory letter or assist us in any way with our Juneteenth activities," Alexander wrote. "I didn’t have the courtesy of receiving a reply when I asked for a representative from the Governor’s office to come and speak at our Juneteenth Celebration."
To see how those in the right-wing Republican circles responded to the news of the emails, one need only go to FreeRepublic.com. "This what you get [sic] with an affirmative action fraud who has gammed the legal systems all his adult life," wrote one respondent. "This fraudulent leftist is the end result of allowing affirmative action and political correctness to destory [sic] the nation and sissify our government [sic] and courts."
Palin, herself, was accused of making such comments about Obama herself prior to her receiving the VP nomination. Those who know her are split about whether they believe she made them or not. "I don’t think she did," said one longtime resident of Wasilla. "But my husband thinks she could have. Who knows? I’ve never heard her say anything like that."
But on the campaign trail, Palin ramped up the rhetoric about Obama. "This is not a man who sees America like you and I see America," she declared. She also charged him with "pallin’ around with terrorists" and declaring that "he’s not one of us."
As many people noted, Palin’s rhetoric was racially coded—and the implications were clear.
"He’s ‘not one of us?’" observed African American congress member Gregory Meeks of New York. "That’s racial. That’s fear. They know they can’t win on the issues, so the last resort they have is race and fear."
also see:
Alaska officials exchanged racist emails about Barack Obama
Alaska has launched an investigation after state officials emailed each other racist jokes about President-elect Barack Obama using government computers.Telegraph.co.uk /Dec. 18,2008
and see latest at Huffington Post by Geoffrey Dunn 'Watermelon Roll': More Racism from 'Team Sarah' Dec. 21, 2008
There is something very ugly happening out there in the hinterlands these days--a brewing cauldron of racist anger being directed at President-elect Barack Obama as he and his family get ready to move into the White House. It's a mean-spirited bigotry that is finding its way onto the internet and right-wing blogs across the country. It makes for a troubling portrait of a significant cross-section of the American polity as Obama prepares to take the oath of office as the 44th President of these United States.
Nowhere have these tendencies been more out-front and prominent than at TeamSarah.org, a website organized by "a coalition of women dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process." Men, according to an exclamatory notice, are welcome, too.
Anyway Geoffrey Dunn notes that the site isn't just devoted to promoting Sarah Palin and her views but seems to spend even more time attacking Barack Obama as he cites several examples.
But what's interesting is that there are actually more blog topics about "Obama" than about "Palin." Of course, Obama's citizenship, birth certificate, and alleged Muslim upbringing are constantly questioned, along with his youthful drug use (though funny, Palin's admitted use of marijuana is not, and we won't even mention Levi Johnston's mother). There are also a lot of references to Obama being the anti-Christ: "He is the antichrist sent here to destroy America. Nobody knows who he is or where he was born."
And then there's some plain, downright nastiness and plenty of good ol' fashioned racism that, well, certainly doesn't sound Christian, if you catch my drift. When a blogger named James asks if anybody has bought the new Obama coins, SavantNoir responds: "[Y]es James, and i melted it down to see the look of agnoy on his face, made it a BB pellet and shot it into a pile of shit."
On one blog Heather describes Election Day as the "most terrible" in history and asks "how long until obama is shot??????" Josie responds: "There are plenty of people that would like to see Obama end that way."
Nice. Then there's the "Obama the Snowman" song:
Obama the Snowman
Was a very scary soul
With a marijuana pipe
And two eyes made out of skoal
Obama the Snowman
Is a Kenyan they say
He liked his white nose snow
But the Americans know
How he stole their country one day
And guess what? It sounds exactly like the kind of racist remarks that were being sent recently on State of Alaska government emails.
Under a post entitled "Police prepare for RIOTS," by one BarbaraJo, one concerned blogger named Tommygun responded: "For people in urban/Obama areas--do this now: 1. Stock up on some basic supplies--food, health and hygiene, water, etc. 2. Keep track of where your family members are. 3. Work up meeting points in your community for your family (different spots in town where members are to go if problems occur). 4. Check and prepare any weapons you may have."
In response, a blogger named Johnny got more to the point:
"Well niggers will occasionally chimp out like this, am I right?"
While several Team Sarah members condemned that particular post, it's remnants are still up on the web site...
And check out pro-Sarah Palin website which is also used as a place to attack President-Elect Obama whom they believe in one way or another stole the electionTeam Sarah.org
and so it goes ,
GORD.
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