Tag: Civil Rights

Making American(History) Great Again–Part 30

The next episode of the historical series written by Maj. Danny Sjursen….a look at a true history not the sanitized one that we are taught in our schools…..

The past is prologue. The stories we tell about ourselves and our forebears inform the sort of country we think we are and help determine public policy. As our current president promises to “make America great again,” this moment is an appropriate time to reconsider our past, look back at various eras of United States history and re-evaluate America’s origins.

This part looks at our history of civil rights and the days around the push for the law….but first let me help my reader get caught up with the story so far……

Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5; Part 6; Part 7; Part 8; Part 9; Part 10;Part 11; Part 12; Part 13; Part 14; Part 15; Part 16; Part 17; Part 18; Part 19; Part 20; Part 21; Part 22; Part 23; Part 24; Part 25; Part 26; Part 27; Part 28; Part 29.

Rosa Parks sat, Martin Luther King Jr. stood up, the Supreme Court overturned school segregation, and the rest, as they say, was history. African-Americans, long-abused and long-thwarted, ultimately won their civil rights in what has become a defining American story. Only that’s what this is—a story, a mythologized and sanitized past that fails to engage with the complexity of the issues at hand.

According to what American children are taught, the civil rights activists managed a coherent movement; there seldom is mention of the internal battles within the black and white liberal communities. As it is taught, the movement had a discrete chronology, a beginning and an end. It begins with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board or Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white person on a crowded, segregated bus in Montgomery, Ala. It ends, usually, with either the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, or with the King assassination in April 1968. The mythologized movement has a distinctly Southern geography—lost are the riots, poverty and persistent de facto segregation of the urban North.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/american-history-for-truthdiggers-civil-rights-a-dream-deferred/

This is an excellent look back at America’s history….in the vane of Howard Zinn and his History of the American People….

Learn Stuff!

Be Smart!

Class Dismissed!

Bring Back HUAC!

About now there is a wealth of readers going…HUH?

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, investigated allegations of communist activity in the U.S. during the early years of the Cold War (1945-91). Established in 1938, the committee wielded its subpoena power as a weapon and called citizens to testify in high-profile hearings before Congress. This intimidating atmosphere often produced dramatic but questionable revelations about Communists infiltrating American institutions and subversive actions by well-known citizens. HUAC’s controversial tactics contributed to the fear, distrust and repression that existed during the anticommunist hysteria of the 1950s. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, HUAC’s influence was in decline, and in 1969 it was renamed the Committee on Internal Security. Although it ceased issuing subpoenas that year, its operations continued until 1975.

Me?  I was born too late to suffer through stupidity of HUAC…I was unfortunate enough to be troubled by COINTELPRO…..but I have already covered that assault on my civil liberties….but since I was a radical it was all so much good from the point of view of the micro-brains on the Right…..I was in great company….H. Rap Brown, Huey Newton, Berrigan and many other radicals of the day.

I bring up HUAC because that “great” American mouthpiece, Newt Gingrich, seems to think we need that intrusion into our privacy…..yet again….

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich proposed the creation of a new version of the controversial House Un-American Activities Committee to root out American citizens who plan to commit terrorist attacks in the U.S.

“We originally created the House Un-American Activities Committee to go after Nazis. We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We’re going to presently have to go take the similar steps here,” Gingrich said in a Monday appearance on “Fox and Friends.”

Originally founded in 1938, the committee investigated suspected threats of Nazi subversion and anti-government propaganda. During the Cold War, its activities sprawled, leading to the blacklist of Hollywood stars and left-wing activists, writers, and academics accused of having Communist ties.

In 1959, former President Harry Truman infamously called the committee “the most un-American thing in the country today.”

Gingrich also suggested that the U.S. will inevitably “declare a war on Islamic supremacists” living here due to the number of terrorist attacks that have been committed by American citizens, such as those in San Bernardino, California and at the Fort Hood military base.

“We’re going to say, if you pledge allegiance to ISIS, you are a traitor and you have lost your citizenship,” Gingrich said.

Under current law, the U.S. cannot revoke the citizenship of natural-born U.S. citizens against their will.

(talkingpointsmemo.com)

Just another assault on your civil liberties……but who cares….right?

Segregation Is Just Wrong!

We here in the US have had our bout with racism, sexism and segregation and we have moved past it (now here we could stop and argue if that statement is true…personally I think NOT….but that is not what this post is about…..)……..and that democracy will eliminate the abuses like segregation…..

We have all seen how women, in particular, are treated….they must segregate themselves from the men, they are treated like chattel, and have very few rights if any in the Muslim world……and we here in the US condemn this treatment of women and we almost universally state that if democracy is to flourish then this type of situation must be resolved…..

First of all…CRAP!

When it comes to the Middle East conservatives point to Israel as this shining beacon of democracy that all countries should aspire to accomplish…….here we could argue that it is NOT as democratic as its cheerleaders would have you believe…..all that democracy seems to be only for the Jews…….the Israeli Arabs would most likely give a good case for this statement being erroneous…..and that would be a discussion for another day……….

In the democratic state of Israel there seems to be a bit of a problem with the segregation of women……

Israel boasts a female opposition leader, high-profile women soldiers, and a female former prime minister. But walk the streets of Jerusalem these days and, in some areas, you’ll see gender-segregated sidewalks, buses, health clinics, and supermarkets—and few billboards or ads depicting women. The capital city has become increasingly segregated as ultra-Orthodox rabbis fight back against what they see as secularization, the AP reports. In one of several examples, the AP notes that Jerusalem debuted its long-awaited light rail with a big ad campaign this summer—one devoid of women’s faces. The growing segregation is most obvious in Jerusalem, where the ultra-Orthodox population is growing quickly (it’s expected to jump from its current 9% to 15% by 2025) and has a disproportionate amount of political power, but it’s moving into other areas as well. Even the military is considering reassigning female soldiers, as some religious men don’t want to serve alongside them. But Israel’s Supreme Court has made moves against the trend, and last month ordered that barriers intended to segregate a sidewalk during a popular religious ceremony be removed.

Of course I am sure that the cheerleaders will find some way to justify this practice…..you know….kinda like they justified it in the South in the 1950’s…..

FLASH!  There is NO justification of the practice of segregation in a democracy……either eliminate the practice or STOP calling yourself a democracy!

Haley Barbour–Southern Revisionist

As most of my readers know I live in the South and most specifically, Mississippi and our governor is Haley Barbour……I hear the national pundits talk about his political savvy and all that he has done for the GOP and for that matter all that he has done for the state…..thinking…….thinking…..just what has he done for Mississippi residents that is that amazing?  Infant mortality is high, education is low, obesity is high, poverty is running amok…..so what has he done?  Oh yeah he brought a Tonka Toy (Toyota)  plant to the state that hired about a 100 people…that oughta put a dent in the unemployment rate……

Sorry, I digress…..I just do not see where this man is all that and a bag of chips…but then I am not a national pundit…..

The meat of this post is about the racism that still exists in the South, especially Mississippi…..talk to someone in the state and they will deny it and follow up with some of my best friends are black….a sure sign of lying……or the will say that the rebel flag is a sign of heritage…well that part is true…it is a symbol of the heritage of  HATE….

With that said, the hero of the GOP was interviewed and talked about the days of the civil rights movement in Mississippi…..

In an interview that set off a new round of debate on Monday about racial attitudes and politics, Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, a potential Republican presidential candidate, recalled the 1960s civil rights struggle in his hometown, Yazoo City, saying, “I just don’t remember it as being that bad.”In a profile published Monday in The Weekly Standard, Mr. Barbour also talked about the White Citizens’ Councils of the late 1960s, which opposed racial integration. Mr. Barbour, a teenager and young adult during the 1960s, said that in his town, they were a positive force, praising them as “an organization of town leaders” who refused to tolerate the racist attitudes of the Ku Klux Klan.

“In Yazoo City they passed a resolution that said anybody who started a chapter of the Klan” would be “run out of town,” Mr. Barbour said. “If you had a job, you’d lose it. If you had a store, they’d see nobody shopped there. We didn’t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.”

Revisionism…..those councils were there to fight against blacks becoming part of society…..they were attacked at the their jobs if they tried to integrate, the we attack if they tried to shop in white shops (by attack I am talking about social pressure, though physical pressure was NOT unheard of in Mississippi)…..it is just a continuation of the hate that had built up in the state…..Barbour has very selective memory….and he is a BS arrtist…after all he is a lobbyist in Washington….

His attitude is the same as most Mississippians from age 50 to 90….they are racists and try to cover it with total BS……

He Barbour wants to be a national candidate anytime soon he had better back off this and spin it another way……or he will not be a candidate for president….something he dreams about……

Haley Barbour, Southern revisionist personified!

Constitution And TP

From the Scriptorium/Vomitorium

First of all the “TP” does not stand for toilet paper, even though I think the bill could be used as such, it stands for Tea Party…..

In the beginning of the “End of Days” the Tea Party guys/gals were up in arms about the government bailing out the banks using hard earned tax dollars taken from the average person…they then went head over heels against the health reform bill….you know the stuff they call “Obamacare”?  They have almost always been against taxes and tax increases….then they ….well let us just say they have been very vocal most of the time……..

Then they moved on to the constitutionality of ANY of the Dems programs….health care, FinReg, taxes, ………pick a situation an they see it as a slap at the constitution……..but yet a direct assault on the US Constitution goes without comment…..what am I going on about?  You may ask……

Arizona is the simple answer….illegal aliens is another…..put them together and you have the new bill signed by the governor of Arizona last Friday…..basically the bill reads like this:

SB1070’s broad instruction to police that when there is “reasonable suspicion” that a person is an illegal immigrant, a “reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable” to check for documents

It is saying to people of Hispanic descent, “Do not leave the house without your wallet”…….sorry you people but do not look now but this is possibly a violation of the 14th amendment, which reads:

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

I point this out because for all their false bravado, none of them are coming in opposition to the Arizona bill…….so much for yelling about the Constitution…….if it applies to health care then it definitely applies to the racist law now in force in Arizona……sorry but your silence  puts an end to the argument that the Tea Party movement is NOT a racist grassroots movement……

So STOP standing on the Constitution because you hate Obama!  To you guys it is nothing but a political prop to be used in your hate-mongering…..Grow some nuts and for once tell the truth about your hate!

Big Brother IS Watching!

A lot of people have used that term from the book “1984”….it has been used to categorize a lot of stuff the government is doing and how it could effect the people……the Patriot Act comes to mind….there has been a lot of things that have been predicted as Big Brother sticking his nose into ordinary people’s lives….and then there is France……

The lower house of the French parliament has approved a draft bill that will allow the state unprecedented control over the Internet. Although the government says it will improve security for ordinary citizens, civil rights activists are warning of a “new level” of censorship and surveillance.

For members of the French administration, it is a law against digital crime. For civil rights activists and politicians from opposition parties, it is a plan for censorship that excites fear and loathing — and even conjures up the specter of Big Brother and the surveillance state.

The new legislation could in the future force Internet service providers (ISPs) to shut off access to criminal sites, should they be officially instructed to do so. According to the draft legislation, the law “makes it the responsibility of each Internet service provider to ensure that users don’t have access to unsuitable content.”

Now that brings in the question….who will decide what is “unsuitable content”?  This is akin to someone decide which books I am allowed to read….my mother did not do it: government definitely does not have that right…..

I bring this to everyone’s attention because if it succeeds in France it will be coming to a country near you!  Today the French, tomorrow YOU!  Then BIG BROTHER will have his way and you will have your “security”……..While you were sleeping you have been losing your rights slowly but slowly…..Happy Now?

And The Constitution Says—-

Daily Agitator

The right has been standing on the Constitution for decades especially where guns and abortion are concerned….they have used it to fight health reform….or to question the birth of a president….but these people,  and I use the term loosely…..only use the Constitution when it is for their case against an issue…otherwise they could care less about the document…..

For instance, the 2nd amendment freaks that are so concerned with gun ownership…anything that remotely sounds like gun control and the yells go out that the Constitution is being violated by those in favor of the control…..

Next, we come to the “tenthers”, those on the Right that use the 10th amendment to oppose anything from health care to ….well pick a topic…..the Constitution is the first thing that they point to and use it for all it is worth…

And then we have those MORONS that use the Constitution, Article 2, section 1, to oppose a duly elected president as Not being a natural born citizen….

All in all…the Right has used the document so many times that it loses some of its effect in any argument….

With all that said…you are wondering just what I am getting to as a conclusion to my bitch, right?

It all boils down to the moving and trials of the suspected “terrorists” in New York City.  There are many that are pissing and moaning about the move and the trials…most notably, America’s mayor, Guiliani.

“What the Obama administration is telling us loud and clear is that both in substance and reality, the War on Terror from their point of view is over,” Giuliani said. “(Mohammad) should be tried in a military tribunal. He is a war criminal. This is an act of war.”

His statement is nothing but a political game….he just wants his face kept in front of the cameras….this type of game playing should be a crime……no matter who plays it!

Just about everybody has an opinion on this story….mostly it is in opposition of these people standing trial in the US.  Most notable is FOX News, whose “news” people are jumping up and down in opposition….some even look like they are having a stroke….but there is a precedent for these trials!

REALLY!  I bet you are on the edge of your chairs to see what that precedent will be, right?

I am looking at this as a pure legal matter…we all know what we, individually,  believe about these people….so what is my precedent?

So simple!  The same document that is used to oppose issues…THE CONSTITUTION!

Amendment 6 – Right to Speedy Trial, Confrontation of Witnesses. Ratified 12/15/1791.

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

See!  How tough was that?  A lot simpler than you thought, eh?  If all reps have a pocket copy of the US Constitution, then maybe they should read it…..before they open their mouths.  The scary part for me is that the American people buy into the BS of the Constitutionality of an issue…..why?  They have not read it either.

If you read the amendment….it does not stipulate that it applies to natural born citizens….it says ALL CRIMINAL PROSECUTIONS……..if the 2nd amendment should be followed as written, then so should the 6th.

I have said this on numerous posts….if you want to stand on the Constitution, then go all in or all out……either the Constitution applies to every issue or none…..there is no in between…..ALL IN OR ALL OUT!

What To Look For In Denver

Obama has cast himself as the agent of change and has promised much, but ask yourself if he can truly deliver on what he has said.

These promises are:

1–withdrawal of troops from Iraq

2–to reduce the inequality between the classes

3–Universal healthcare–this will not be a priority in the Obama campaign.

4–a green environmental policy

5–End torture and abuse of civil liberties–but voted for FISA

6–commitment to woman’s rights

7–a more humane immigration policy

8–improving conditions is the urban communities

9–Reform drug laws

10-reform political system

Now you have the major points of the Obama camp.

The Democratic convention itself—a carefully scripted and corporate-funded media extravaganza—is to be the culmination of a systematic shift to the right by the Obama campaign.

In this election, once again, the vast majority of the American people who oppose the war in Iraq and the global escalation of American militarism are to be politically disenfranchised.

The political trajectory of the Obama campaign and the preparations for the reactionary media spectacle to be staged in Denver underscore the impossibility of carrying out any struggle against war, political reaction and the destruction of the living standards and basic rights outside of the independent political mobilization of the working class.

JUst remember you heard it first from the mouth of the Professor.

Jesse Helms Dead

Former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), a conservative icon who represented the Tarheel State in the Senate for 30 years, died early this morning at the age of 86.

Helms served in the Senate from 1972 to 2002, where he became a leading voice of the right wing of the Republican Party. Nicknamed “Senator No” by his many critics, Helms was a fierce anti-communist whose support for Ronald Reagan in 1976 proved a critical juncture in Reagan’s eventual rise to the Oval Office. To many on the right, it was Helms, not Reagan, who was the true heart of the conservative movement.
But as much as he was lionized by the right, Helms was vilified by the left for his “Old South” racial politics, as well as his open scorn for the press, gays, liberals, and the United Nations. During his 1990 reelection battle with Democrat Harvey Gantt, the black former mayor of Charlotte, his campaign ran an infamous ad that shows a pair of white hands crumpling up a job rejection letter, as the narrator says, “You needed that job, and you were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority, because of a racial quota. Is that really fair? Harvey Gantt says it is.”

In the early 1960s, Helms became an on-air commentator for WRAL-TV in Raleigh and began to gain a statewide following. Helms vehemently opposed the civil-rights movement, and he made a frequent target of the University of North Carolina, which he saw as a bastion of liberalism in an otherwise conservative state. “The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that’s thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men’s rights,” Helms said in a 1963 TV editorial.

Slowly, but slowly the “Old South” good old boys, the people that fought against civil rights and such, are slowly dying off.  In a way it is good, maybe then we can put the racial BS behind us and move on to a better country.

The Anti Civil Rights Movement

.Over the last few months one of the most important electoral struggles of 2008 played out in Missouri. The deceptively-named Missouri Civil Rights Initiative (MoCRI), which would have outlawed affirmative action programs here was blocked May 4 because petitions to get the measure on the ballot were not submitted.

Ward Connerly, an African American multi-millionaire lobbyist for the construction industry, who also financed successful anti-affirmative-action initiatives in California, Washington and Michigan, was the main backer of the measure here.

For Connerly’s anti-civil-rights movement, this year was supposed to be a watershed moment eventually leading to a majority of states banning affirmative action policies, and eventually a federal law.

Also, the prospect of an African American or woman Democratic presidential nominee meant that the extreme right wing in the GOP needed to mobilize voters using racism and sexism, with the belief that they would vote for the Republican candidate in November.

After Connerly made his intentions known, Missouri labor, community, civil rights and faith groups came together to form Working to Empower Community Action Now (WeCAN) and decided the best way to stop the initiative was to do direct action voter education.

By tirelessly searching out anti-civil-rights petitioners and then giving Missouri voters information about the true intent of the petition, we informed thousands of Missourians, most of whom said to the petitioners, “No, thank you.”

Why did we do this? Because the petitioners if seldom ever said that the initiative would ban affirmative action. Most said it would end workplace discrimination. It was necessary to speak with voters at the point of contact, so that they would be aware of the true meaning of the petition.

Missouri became the poster child for the national right-wing campaign. Outside money and resources began pouring into MoCRI’s coffers. They not only increased the amount they paid per signature (some petitioners were being paid as much as $10 per signature) started to pay for flights and lodging for signature gatherers to come to Missouri.

Missouri is known as the Show Me State, where you have to try hard to win trust and back up your promises with action. Right-wing forces believed that they would easily triumph here. But, in the end, it was the voters of Missouri who showed them.