ExPatNortherner's Blog

Common Ground Notebook 

Week 1 (October 2, 2008)

Today started the kick-off for the second round of Common Ground.  This session is being hosted by Trinity Baptist Church in Cordova (beautiful facility!). 

Everyone nervously gathered in the main church worship area, after a brief introduction by a representative from Bridges and a short history of the Memphis Common Ground project everyone was split into groups of about 10-12.  I'm not sure yet how they determined criteria (random??) to split everyone into groups but I'm positive there is a method to the makeup.

The groups are headed by two facilitators who encourage people to share and move the conversation along.  The format is loosely based on a curriculum that looks to have been developed by an organization named "Everyday Democracy".  The pace and flow of my group was loose and used the curriculum more as a guide than a strict adherence.  It seems like (at this point anyway) the group interaction takes precedence over the curriculum material.  In my opinion this is a good thing, as we move forward I'm more interested in my group participants than being a rat in a maze.

Each group has 10-12 people of various ethnicities, backgrounds, ages and economic strata.  What was extremely noticeable (as previously observed by Bubba) was the lack of African-American men, to my observation there were only 3-4 of us out of 50-60 total participants. 

Everyone has to share, no lurking allowed.  If you've ever been to group therapy, or an AA or NA meeting  then you'll feel right at home.  We all sit in a circle so we can look at each other while we speak.  Respect and tolerance is the rule of the day, you want to encourage people to share, not push them away.

This first week was a "get to know a little about you" session.  We went around the room saying a little about ourselves and our histories. 

Some quick observations:

- One of the more prevalent themes were the mother's concern for the future of their children.  One woman even cried because she was so concerned about the future for her son.  (I'm not an emotional person, but this got to me in a deep way).

- Growing up in NYC is so very far removed from the experiences most in the group had BUT in the end it didn't matter, racism had touched everyone in different ways.

- The Memphians in the group were very concerned how their city is being portrayed to the rest of the US and the world.  The negative images in the news and "The First 48" were mentioned as taking away from the image of the city rather than enhancing it.

- I seriously need to learn Memphis neighborhoods.  The other group participants mentioned a few of them and I had no clue what areas of the city they were referring to.  Note to self: I need to do my homework on Memphis neighborhoods.

Links of note:

Everyday Democracy - http://www.everyday-democracy.org
Common Ground Memphis - http://www.commongroundmemphis.org
Bridges - http://bridgeusa.com

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080924/ap_on_go_ot/lobbyin
g_meltdown;_ylt=Avkv7p0Wx0_gaPaziReqN4oNJ_wE
Giants got 'access insurance' to McCain aide
By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer Wed Sep 24, 5:52 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Pay a lobbying firm $15,000 a month for several years to do no lobbying. Pay a former campaign aide to John McCain $30,000 a month for five years following the senator's failed bid in 2000 for the presidency.

At any other time, it would be business as usual in Washington.

Not today. The money came from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two failed housing giants that are a huge part of the financial crisis imperiling the economy.

And the recipient of most of the funds is McCain's current campaign manager, Rick Davis.

"The payments are for 'access insurance' with the Republican Party and with someone very close to McCain," James Thurber, director of American University's Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies, said Wednesday.

Thurber, who teaches lobbying and spent seven years looking into the conduct of political campaigns, says the money to Davis is especially instructive with regard to McCain, who bills himself as the candidate who will change the way Washington works.

Good-government groups say Washington's money trail goes a long way in explaining why the country finds itself having to hang its future on a financial bailout that may or may not work.

Over the years, the hated "r" word — regulation — came up frequently in Congress with regard to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but not often enough, financial experts say in retrospect.

McCain was among those who said more regulation was needed, a point his campaign emphasized in lambasting The New York Times for writing about the payments to Davis and his lobbying firm.

In the end, the idea of reining in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac always got buried under a cascade of dollars that went to both Democrats and Republicans, concludes a report by Common Cause.

Before this month's inconvenient crackup, Fannie Mae gave more than 60 percent of its $916,000 in campaign donations this election cycle to Democrats in Congress, since the party broke Republicans' long grip on Capitol Hill. Likewise, Freddie Mac gave 54 percent of its $478,000 in donations to Democrats, according to figures from the Center for Responsive Politics, a private group that tracks money in politics. Overall, the financial sector has contributed $1.6 billion to federal candidates and their parties since 1997, the center says.

The money game in Washington is played in a myriad of ways and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played it to the hilt. Campaign contributions, fundraisers and hiring the well-connected are all part of it.

In Davis's case, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac set him up to run an entity they created and paid for called the Homeownership Alliance. It promoted Fannie's and Freddie's achievements and discouraged any changes to the wide-open road on which Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operated.

Everyone — Barack Obama's campaign included — profited, at least until now.

On Wednesday, McCain's campaign pushed back.

"Mr. Davis has never — never — been a lobbyist for either Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac," the McCain campaign said in criticizing the news media's focus on the payments to Davis and his lobbying firm.

Robert McCarson, who was director of corporate relations at Fannie Mae from 1999 to 2004, said it is "ironic that the campaign that bills itself as the campaign of reform would give such a legalistic answer.

"The reality is that Rick Davis didn't have to register as a lobbyist to do his most powerful lobbying, which was to be the person that John McCain staked his future in as his campaign manager," said McCarson, a Democrat who was an aide in 1990-91 to then-Rep. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20081001/cm_csm/ysea
quist
What it's like to debate Sarah Palin

By Andrew HalcroWed Oct 1, 4:00 AM ET

When he faces off against Sarah Palin Thursday night, Joe Biden will have his hands full.

I should know. I've debated Governor Palin more than two dozen times. And she's a master, not of facts, figures, or insightful policy recommendations, but at the fine art of the nonanswer, the glittering generality. Against such charms there is little Senator Biden, or anyone, can do.

On paper, of course, the debate appears to be a mismatch.

In 2000, Palin was the mayor of an Alaskan town of 5,500 people, while Biden was serving his 28th year as a United States senator. Her major public policy concern was building a local ice rink and sports center. His major public policy concern was the State Department's decision to grant an export license to allow sales of heavy-lift helicopters to Turkey, during tense UN-sponsored Cyprus peace talks.

On paper, the difference in experience on both domestic and foreign policy is like the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing a bullet. Unfortunately for Biden, if recent history is an indicator, experience or a grasp of the issues won't matter when it comes to debating Palin.

On April 17, 2006, Palin and I participated in a debate at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks on agriculture issues. The next day, the Fairbanks Daily News Miner published this excerpt:

"Andrew Halcro, a declared independent candidate from Anchorage, came armed with statistics on agricultural productivity. Sarah Palin, a Republican from Wasilla, said the Matanuska Valley provides a positive example for other communities interested in agriculture to study."

On April 18, 2006, Palin and I sat together in a hotel coffee shop comparing campaign trail notes. As we talked about the debates, Palin made a comment that highlights the phenomenon that Biden is up against.

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers, and yet when asked questions, you spout off facts, figures, and policies, and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

While policy wonks such as Biden might cringe, it seemed to me that Palin was simply vocalizing her strength without realizing it. During the campaign, Palin's knowledge on public policy issues never matured – because it didn't have to. Her ability to fill the debate halls with her presence and her gift of the glittering generality made it possible for her to rely on populism instead of policy.

Palin is a master of the nonanswer. She can turn a 60-second response to a query about her specific solutions to healthcare challenges into a folksy story about how she's met people on the campaign trail who face healthcare challenges. All without uttering a word about her public-policy solutions to healthcare challenges.

In one debate, a moderator asked the candidates to name a bill the legislature had recently passed that we didn't like. I named one. Democratic candidate Tony Knowles named one. But Sarah Palin instead used her allotted time to criticize the incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski. Asked to name a bill we did like, the same pattern emerged: Palin didn't name a bill.

And when she does answer the actual question asked, she has a canny ability to connect with the audience on a personal level. For example, asked to name a major issue that had been ignored during the campaign, I discussed the health of local communities, Mr. Knowles talked about affordable healthcare, and Palin talked about ... the need to protect hunting and fishing rights.

So what does that mean for Biden? With shorter question-and-answer times and limited interaction between the two, he should simply ignore Palin in a respectful manner on the stage and answer the questions as though he were alone. Any attempt to flex his public-policy knowledge and show Palin is not ready for prime time will inevitably cast him in the role of the bully.

On the other side of the stage, if Palin is to be successful, she needs to do what she does best: fill the room with her presence and stick to the scripted sound bites.

• Andrew Halcro served two terms as a Republican member of the Alaska State House of Representatives. He ran for governor as an Independent in 2006, debating Sarah Palin more than two dozen times. He blogs at www.andrewhalcro.com .

http://minnesotaindependent.com/10179/against-all-re
ason-bachmann-and-others-blame-1977-fair-lending-law-fo
r-adding-to-economic-crisis

Against all reason, Bachmann and others blame 1977 fair-lending law for adding to economic crisis
By Andy Birkey 9/24/08 12:01 PM

Everyone with a soapbox has spent the better part of this week pointing fingers at who is to blame for the emerging economic crisis stemming from the default of millions of subprime mortgages. One direction that conservatives, Republicans and bankers are pointing their fingers is at the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) — a law created to counter the discriminatory practice mortgage banks used for decades to single out minority neighborhoods for subprime mortgages or otherwise deny credit-worthy individuals access to capital simply because of the color of their skin and their neighbors.

Rep. Michele Bachmann slammed CRA in an appearance on Larry King Live on Monday night. “Look at the housing crisis. Government has to take its share of the blame,” she said. “After all, the government was goading these mortgage lenders, saying, ‘You’re redlining. You’re being discriminatory. If you don’t give loans out to marginally credit-worthy people we’re going to come after you.’ In fact, Chairman Barney Frank has made comments like that as well.”

She continued, “The Democrat [sic] controlled Congress wants to have these mortgage lenders make loans to people with marginal credit. Well, guess what? If you aren’t making lending… it is not a shock when you have loans that aren’t paid back.”

Bachmann sits on the House Financial Services Committee with fellow Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison. And Ellison is not amused by that type of rhetoric.

“This is the height of chutzpah,” said Rep. Keith Ellison in a scathing statement on Tuesday. “To suggest that the greatest financial crisis we face since the Great Depression was caused by legislation that was created to help PREVENT low-income individuals from assuming high-cost, subprime loans that have caused the crisis today is absurd.”

“To suggest that struggling families trying to keep their homes brought down the ‘Titans of Commerce,’ ‘The Masters of the Universe’ on Wall Street, is ludicrous. To suggest someone who is raising three children while holding down two minimum-wage jobs on a high school education was able to stall one of the greatest economic engines on earth needs their head examined,” Ellison said.

And empirical data back Ellison’s assertion. A number of studies show that CRA has in fact decreased predatory lending in minority neighborhoods and that banks subject to CRA regulations were less likely to offer subprime loans.

The New York law firm of Traiger and Hinckley analyzed subprime loan data in the 15 largest metropolitan areas (PDF). Only 25 percent of lenders in low- to moderate-income neighborhoods were under the purview of CRA, because many of the newer lenders fell outside of the scope of regulation. The CRA banks, however, were significantly less likely to offer subprime loans, offered lower rates and had fewer foreclosures on their books.

“Our study suggests that without the CRA, the subprime crisis and related spike in foreclosures might have negatively impacted even more borrowers and neighborhoods,” the report said.

And while critics contend that CRA costs banks, other contend that once lenders move into underserved neighborhoods, profit can be made. Ellen Seidman of the New America Foundation’s Financial Services and Education Project told Comgress, “Once these initiatives were started, many have proven to be sustainable in purely financial terms.”

Janet L. Yellen, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, told Congress in April:

“There has been a tendency to conflate the current problems in the subprime market with CRA-motivated lending, or with lending to low-income families in general. I believe it is very important to make a distinction between the two. Most of the loans made by depository institutions examined under the CRA have not been higher-priced loans, and studies have shown that the CRA has increased the volume of responsible lending to low- and moderate-income households. We should not view the current foreclosure trends as justification to abandon the goal of expanding access to credit among low-income households, since access to credit, and the subsequent ability to buy a home, remains one of the most important mechanisms we have to help low-income families build wealth over the long term.”

Interestingly, in 2005, just as the the explosion in subprime loans hit underserved neighborhoods, the Bush administration under pressure from banks changed the rules so that only banks with $1 billion in assets would be subject to CRA. The law was essentially gutted.

Robert Gordon of the American Prospect has traced the roots of the “blame CRA” meme back to Ron Paul supporters and crackpot conservative message boards, then to the conservative Washington Times and finally to Bachmann and other prominent conservatives. Talking Points Memo put together this video of conservatives blaming minorities for the housing collapse.

“Irresponsible and unregulated free-market lending run amok got us into this fix today,” Ellison said Tuesday. “Executive salaries the size of Third World economies, coupled with enormous compensation packages, epitomizes the laissez faire policies of the past eight years under George W. Bush. We are living a textbook example of a free and unfettered market failure. It is a crisis that can only be addressed by government oversight and regulation.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/
2008-09-28-gop-remarks_N.htm

GOP official removed for racial remarks

Posted 20h 46m ago 

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The spokeswoman for the Republican Party in Nevada's most populous county was removed from her post Saturday, after she said the Democratic Party made black people "dependent on the government."

Didi Lima, the Clark County GOP communications director, also was removed from her volunteer role as a Hispanic community liaison for Republican John McCain's presidential campaign over the remarks made earlier in the day while working at a McCain campaign booth.

"We don't want (Hispanics) to become the new African-American community," Lima told The Associated Press. "And that's what the Democratic Party is going to do to them, create more programs and give them handouts, food stamps and checks for this and checks for that. We don't want that."

"I'm very much afraid that the Democratic Party is going to do the same thing that they did with the African-American culture and make them all dependent on the government and we don't want that," she said.

In August, Lima was named co-chair of McCain's Nevada Hispanic Leadership Team, which aimed to reach out to a crucial voting bloc in a state where polls show McCain in a dead heat with Barack Obama.

"Didi Lima is no longer a part of this campaign, her comments don't reflect Senator McCain's beliefs and are not tolerated on his campaign," McCain spokesman Rick Gorka said after learning about her remarks.

Lima is the second Republican Party official to land in hot water this week over comments perceived as inflaming tensions between blacks and Hispanics.

The chairman of the Republican Party in New Mexico's most populous county resigned Thursday, nearly a week after saying "Hispanics consider themselves above blacks" and won't vote for Obama.

Fernando C de Baca had been urged to resign for days by members of his own party.

Clark County Republican Party Chairman Bernie Zadrowski said he was "appalled" by Lima's remarks. Lima was appointed party spokeswoman in late July.

"She was speaking for herself, not the Clark County Republican Party," Zadrowski said. "And she won't be speaking for the Clark County Republican Party anymore."

Obama campaign spokeswoman Kirsten Searer said the remarks were "proof of how out of touch John McCain and Republicans are with the issues facing all Americans today."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

USNavy, this Buds for you!

Ex-Pat

---

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/jan/08/christian_ri
ght_agenda_requires_no_critical_thinki/
Christian right agenda requires no critical thinking

By Xander Casad

January 8, 2008

Leaders of the Christian right play “on the personal and economic despair of, essentially, the American working class ... (and) promise a world of magic.” These are the words of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, who argues that the political Christian right, called “Dominionism” as a political movement, shares basic ideological qualities with the fascist movements led by Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler. These basic qualities include the fundamental violence of the movement, the attack on critical discourse, the drawing of strength from social frustration and the conformity of members.

Though Dominionism may not lead to World War III, its imagery is suffused with violence: the “rapture” and “apocalypse,” the sending of the good to heaven and the condemning of the evil to hell, the ultimate separation of “self” and “other.” It is certainly easy, and tempting, to think in dichotomies such as these. White is white; black is black. Everything fits nicely into its box, no critical thinking required. Too bad reality is so often in grayscale or (gasp!) even in color.

This is not Christianity. This is not based in Scripture or tradition or ethical processing. America’s leaders and prospective leaders have relinquished all claims to free will: “God and Pat Robertson and General Petraeus have a plan. There’s nothing we can do.” This mantra may be comforting to those who are grieving, or to those who have little to live for (or on) here on Earth, but it is not responsible government. Only the socially frustrated, huddled masses who are convinced that life on Earth is meaningless can be mentally conditioned into believing such propaganda.

The politicians who propagate it don’t believe it. Campaigns are continually won and lost on such bizarre and peripheral issues as gay marriage and abortion rights, yet (and indeed) federal officeholders, as a rule, never really do anything about these issues. If they did, there would be no reason to re-elect them. Somehow, a public that has very wide-ranging opinions on economic and procedural issues has been unified by shared belief in two or three unrealizable goals. And the public is rewarded with just enough religious funding to keep hope alive. It is meaningless in terms of substantive change, but it is a good investment in party politics.

Democracy is based on a belief in relativism, a belief that everyone has a right to be heard. Dominionists want to silence the voice of their opposition and, because they refuse to believe in reality or logic, they refuse to consider that they might be wrong or engage in any rational debate of any sort, unraveling the very fabric of American democracy.

Poll Finds World's Preference Is Clear: Obama for President
Obama leads McCain in all 22 countries surveyed, but that might not help him at home

By Thomas Omestad, US News & World Report
Posted September 10, 2008

If the world could vote, Barack Obama would most likely win in a landslide.

A new BBC World Service poll surveyed people in 22 countries and found that, in every one of them, Democratic nominee Barack Obama was favored over Republican candidate John McCain. On average, 49 percent would like to see Obama prevail, while only 12 percent prefer McCain, according to the survey of 22,531 adult citizens of the 22 countries. The rest offered no preference.

The pro-Obama margin differed widely—from 82 percentage points in Kenya (where Obama's father was born) to 9 percentage points in India.

Obama's African-American heritage appears to be one key factor. By a margin of 46 percent to 27 percent, those polled overseas said his election as president would "fundamentally change" their perception of the United States.

The clear finding of global preference for Obama may not be an entirely good thing for his political prospects at home, though. After the Illinois senator delivered a widely praised foreign policy speech to more than 200,000 people in Berlin in July, McCain aides sought to portray Obama's foreign foray as emblematic of his purported distance from the concerns of ordinary Americans. A McCain spokesman, Tucker Bounds, sniped at Obama for describing himself as a "citizen of the world" and pointedly noted that McCain was campaigning in front of "the American citizens who will decide this election." McCain himself said he'd like to deliver a speech in Berlin some day—"as president of the United States rather than as a candidate." (It turns out he had given a talk in Canada the previous month.)

The poll could still be good news on the foreign policy front for Obama, should he win in November. Several of the nations most enthusiastic about an Obama presidency are key allies, such as Canada, France, Germany, Britain, and Italy. That goodwill could, to some degree, strengthen Obama's hand in asking for more allied help in Afghanistan, dealings with Russia, and other issues. It could be a source of "soft power" for a president trying to galvanize overseas support for U.S. initiatives.

The optimism about Obama abroad could itself help improve relationships that were wounded amid the controversies sprouting from President Bush's actions in Iraq and on arms control, global warming, and other issues—actions often characterized overseas as reflecting Bush's go-it-alone instincts. Among those asked, 46 percent believe U.S. relations with the world would improve with an Obama White House, while only 20 percent said so with regard to a McCain presidency.

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/campaign-2008/2008
/09/10/poll-finds-worlds-preference-is-clear-obama-for-
president.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/22/asia_letter/
main3741655.shtml

China In SpaceChinese Space Program Looking To Put An Astronaut On The MoonBEIJING -- January 22, 2007
(CBS) I'm Barry Petersen and this Letter from Asia comes from Beijing. Going to the moon is old hat to America. We landed the first men in 1969. But China now has a real case of lunar fever, with motives that may go beyond exploring the final frontier.

Just as China is emerging as an economic giant, it is also aggressively making its way into space. In 2003, its first astronaut - they call them taikonauts here - came home from fourteen orbits as a national hero.

Right now, a Chinese lunar probe is sending home photos of the moon, anticipating the day in about 2018 when China will land its first taikonaut on the moon, two years before America's return to the lunar surface. Why spend billions on this?

According to China expert Ken Lieberthal, "The Chinese recognize that space is a frontier that brings a lot of prestige. Commercially, they want to be able to launch satellites. They recently did for Nigeria, and Chinese built satellite on commission from Nigeria."

The U.S. Military depends on space for communications, spy satellites, and GPS. The GPS is so accurate it can help soldiers on patrol know exactly where they are. China sees this.

"They recognize very fully that space has an enormous military potential," says Lieberthal. "They recognize that in the U.S. military, space is absolutely essential for our current military strategy and capabilities."

China's president recently promised that China would only be in space for peaceful reasons. Maybe... Or maybe not. China is restructuring its military along American lines - less manpower, more technological prowess.

After China shot down one of its own derelict satellites with a guided missile, it's fair warning that China or the U.S. may someday put weapons into orbit.

"I don't think either side has done the latter," says Lieberthal. "The big question to me is whether either side will pursue the latter. If they do, you can be sure the other side will be there to catch up very quickly."

As Captain Kirk put it, it's the final frontier. The hope is that with two nations wary of each other and focused on space, space will remain a place for breakthroughs and bragging rights, not the battlefield of the 21st century.

---

Ex-Pat comments:
Had you published this article 25, 30 or 40 years ago people would have thought you were either on good drugs, or crazy.  Yet here we are watching as China prepares their space program to move forward into the new millennium while we are playing catch-up with our old Apollo program.

If the Chinese make it to the moon before we go back, or before we go to Mars it will put world faith in America as a technology and innovation leader into question.   America's space program was and is the holy grail of technology.

In the new milleniun this IS the source of America's strength, not guns, not bombs, but chips and software.  With the emergence of India and Brazil as technology powers our spot at the tops is already eroding.  For China to challeneg us for the technology crown  would do more harm for America than any war or terrorist action.

Ex-Pat
http://www.memphisrules.com

In a More Diverse America, A Mostly White Convention

By Eli Saslow and Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 4, 2008; A01

ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 3 -- Organizers conceived of this convention as a means to inspire, but some African American Republicans have found the Xcel Energy Center depressing this week. Everywhere they look, they see evidence of what they consider one of their party's biggest shortcomings.

As the country rapidly diversifies, Republicans are presenting a convention that is almost entirely white.

Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago. Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watches a series of white politicians step to the lectern -- a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years.

"It's hard to look around and not get frustrated," said Michael S. Steele, a black Republican and former lieutenant governor of Maryland. "You almost have to think, 'Wait. How did it come to this?' "

Republicans spent much of the past decade working to improve their minority outreach, particularly to blacks and Hispanics. But a number of setbacks, including an anti-Republican national mood, anger over the response to Hurricane Katrina and the Democratic nomination of Sen. Barack Obama, have largely negated their efforts, several Republicans said.

One week after Democrats nominated the nation's first black presidential candidate on the eve of the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Republicans have only one African American -- Steele -- scheduled to speak during prime time at their convention. The united, diverse coalition that Republicans once envisioned instead looks uniform.

The good news, Republicans said, is that they think Sen. John McCain can still win this election with the kind of demographics on display in St. Paul. In an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors Tuesday morning, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis outlined a strategy in which his candidate targets women and white working-class voters and essentially cedes the black vote.

Obama's "strategy is, 'If I can just deliver the votes that I know exist, whether it's in the minority community or the youth,' or whatever the coalition is that he's got . . . 'then I can win this election,' " Davis said. "We can run our campaign the way we want to run it and not be in direct conflict with a lot of voter groups he is trying to get."

The look in the convention hall is similar to that of a typical McCain event. This summer, for instance, 67 people showed up for one of his town hall meetings in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. One of them was black.

The lack of diversity is out of sync with the demographic changes in the United States. The Census Bureau reported last month that racial and ethnic minorities will make up a majority of the country's population by 2042 -- almost a decade earlier than what the bureau predicted just four years ago. Two-thirds of Americans are non-Hispanic whites, 12.4 percent are black and 14.8 percent are Hispanic, according to 2006 census numbers.

What has helped Republicans is that working-class whites, a bloc they rely on, are more likely to vote than other groups. "But if there is a loss this time, and it is attributed to a smaller and smaller base of white voters, there might be a rethinking" of GOP strategy, said Robert E. Lang, co-director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, which studies demographics and other development patterns.

"If we don't get better at reaching out, we're in big trouble," agreed Michael Williams, a black Republican who chairs the Texas Railroad Commission and who spoke Wednesday night. "It doesn't take much to see that this is not what America looks like. . . . We're trying, but we're not there yet."

Only a few years ago, Republicans talked publicly about the party's aspirations to diversify -- to win a quarter of the black vote by 2008, party leaders said, and half by 2020. Not since Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed his New Deal programs in the 1930s had Republicans won more than about 15 percent of the black vote, but they had reason to hope earlier this decade. President Bush won 11 percent of blacks' votes in 2004, after capturing 8 percent in 2000.

The party has also made a concerted effort to court Hispanics, but its electoral gains have been diminished by the hard-line stance many Republicans have taken on immigration. In 2004, Bush won 44 percent of the Hispanic vote; a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll showed McCain with the support of 31 percent of Latinos.

"We have to make a better case to the Hispanic voter that the Republican Party has something to offer other than a deportation slip," Davis said.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a black think tank, does not track Hispanic delegates, and convention organizers said they will not provide numbers until at least after the convention. According to a CBS-New York Times poll released Sunday, 5 percent of delegates are Hispanic, the lowest percentage at a Republican convention since 1996.

It was at their convention in Philadelphia in 2000 that Republicans started to make more direct appeals to black voters. On the convention's opening night, Gen. Colin L. Powell urged the party to reach out to blacks and other minorities in a "sustained effort." There was also a live video of a black preacher from a Philadelphia church, followed by a gospel choir performance on stage.

At the party's 2004 convention, Bush highlighted programs to increase loans to African American businesses and facilitate minority home ownership.

Ken Mehlman, then chairman of the Republican National Committee, traveled on a "conversations with the community" tour in 2005 and spoke with predominantly black audiences.

In 2006, the Republican Party supported three promising African Americans in their campaigns for office: Steele for Senate, Lynn Swann for Pennsylvania governor and Ken Blackwell for governor of Ohio. All three lost in a year that was bad for Republicans across the country.

A win in any of those elections could have transformed the party's relationship with black voters, Republicans said. Ever since Oklahoman J.C. Watts decided not to run for reelection to the House in 2002, black Republicans have lacked a role model in conservatism. A black Republican elected to high office, North Carolina delegate Tim Johnson said, would "make brothers understand that this isn't the whites-only party."

"That's when the momentum really shifted, losing those elections," said Alex-St. James, chairman of the African American Republican Leadership Council. "After that, it's like the Democrats were trying harder."

Said Steele: "Right now, the party is in a rhythm of looking at attracting African Americans on a cyclical basis, before each election. We have to get into the rhythm of attracting African Americans on a daily basis. That strategy has to be inculcated into the operation of the RNC. Right now, it's not part of our lifeblood."

Steele saw the problem firsthand from the stage Wednesday night. The Joint Center reported that the number of black Republican delegates declined from a record 167 in 2004 to this year's 36. According to the think tank, 24 state delegations at the Xcel Energy Center have no black members.

The homogeneity of the audience is sometimes reinforced by delegations' tendency to dress alike. Floridians sported Hawaiian shirts decorated with palm trees Monday night, and more than 150 Texas delegates and alternates wore red shirts and straw cowboy hats Tuesday.

The minority void in St. Paul is amplified for Republicans who watched Obama deliver his acceptance speech in Denver last week. Blacks made up 25 percent of the delegates at Invesco Field, and black musicians Stevie Wonder and John Legend performed before Obama stepped to the lectern. Vendors inside the stadium sold T-shirts with slogans in Spanish. Martin Luther King's son delivered a brief introductory speech.

"You see what Obama has done, and it's a reminder of what's possible," said Tony Leatherman, a black Republican delegate from Texas.

Leatherman paused and scanned the Xcel Energy Center. "It's obvious we could do better," he said.

A recent Post-ABC poll projects Obama with an 88 percent to 7 percent lead over McCain among African American voters, but black Republicans said that's no excuse for their party to give up. McCain spoke this year to the NAACP and the Urban League, but lately his campaign has focused almost exclusively on white voters.

Over the weekend, McCain traveled with his newly announced running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, to a rally in Washington County, Pa., whose population is 95 percent white.

"There's no doubt that Senator Obama's popularity is going to stymie our efforts to some extent with minorities, and I understand that," said Williams, the railroad commission chairman. "I know about resources and time and money, and you have to make choices. The heavy resources for us are not going to African American voters. But that's different than making no effort all."

McCain's campaign said Tuesday that its strategy to poach what Davis called "Hillary Clinton voters" might be enough to turn the election, since Obama's most loyal supporters -- young voters and minorities -- often turn out in low numbers on Election Day. But later that night, Steele came to a different conclusion.

"I am not going through another election cycle where we fail to energize and engage minority communities," he said. "Have you ever heard that saying -- about how the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result? Well, what we've done with minorities has become a form of political insanity."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2008/09/03/AR2008090303962_pf.html

Non-partisan and to the point, start by CHECKING your facts here:

http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

Irish and Jetlagg, as you both have some severe problems in this area, the site should be mandatory reading for you.

Here's the debunking of the Obama birth certificate lie:

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2008/ju
n/13/obamas-birth-certificate/

And here:

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa
.html

It's really amusing that otherwise intelligent people are willing to suspend all belief, even when the truth is right in front of them, to believe a lie when it supports their outdated worldview.

I'm starting to wonder whether it truly is a fear of Obama, or fear of a world that's leaving them behind (of which Obama is the poster child)? America is changing, maybe too rapidly for some, and their desire to go back to the illusion of safety in the "good old days" is causing them to suspend any shred of common sense and turn into these rather poisonous people.

That's the only way I can explain it. I've been through countless elections and have NEVER seen the level of aggression as being exhibited toward Obama. I hope I'm wrong because walking that poisonous path is usually a one-way trip. It will be hard for those taking that journey to go back to the people they once were. My blessing go out to them.

Ex-Pat
http://www.memphisrules.com

When you sum it all up what's interesting is that the people who buy-in to all this anti-Obama propaganda don't understand how extremist and thus ridiculous they appear.  Let's just say for example that Obama was a Muslim, so what?  In a country where church and state are separate then a man's religion really shouldn't matter, right? 

Technically everyone of every faith should have equal opportunity to lead this country, yet it seems that over and over that the seat of President is reserved for Non-Catholic Christian White Men.  John Kennedy faced a lot of the same type of fearmongering (though not to this intensity) as people predicted he would be a puppet ot the Pope since he was Catholic. 

We tell children "study, work hard and you can be President some day", yet here's a man who's done that and the Right is tearing him down.  Even more than that what's interesting is the sheer amount of venom being displayed, moreso than in any other election I have seen before. 

The same people who are particularly critical try to explain that it's not racism, oh no, it can't be that....fter all they're not racists, no, no way.  In previous elections this kind of thing was used to support the other candidate, but most of these people don't even like McCain, they just hate Obama.

So while the Right-Wing-Craz.. errr....Supporters attempt to do the chicken dance on that slim line between criticizing Obama and not sounding like racists, in the bigger picture they are only speeding up the death of the Republican party. 

It's in a shambles now having eaten itself on the poison pill of George Bush.  Moving forward in order to maintain party membership (and strength) they will have to reach out to other ethnicities who tend to have long memories of the venom surrounding Obama and immigration. 

In essence the very people they are rallying against will be the ones they will have to kiss up to for party survival. 

In anticipation of this I'm sure a lot of people of color are already bending over and ready, pucker up Republicans and at least act like you enjoy it.

Ex-Pat

Note to IrishOaks: I deleted this by mistake while moving it to this section, please repost your responses again, thanks....Ex-Pat

My questions to the Right-Wing-Conservatives among you:

1. If Jesus preached to turn the other cheek why are we embroiled in two wars? Isn't "Thou shall not kill" a commandment? Does America get a pass from obeying commandments because "God is on our side"?

2. Why do you cry about abortions, yet support cuts to social programs to support mothers? How can you be against abortion AND against welfare? Do you expect aid for mother's to magically appear like mana from heaven? Who do you expect to take care of the babies? Ultimately if you reduced abortions in this country to ZERO you'd need publicly funded child-care to properly raise the babies. In essence this would mean more taxes and bigger government spending to support the children and the mothers. So when you mention hypocrisy it's amusing since the ultimate hypocrisy is to be against abortion AND against welfare.

3. Why do Conservatives and the Christian Right resort to fear-mongering? If God is so much on your side shouldn't this be evident by the LOVE being generated? I don't recall Jesus using fear mongering to gain supporters. Nor did he use rhetoric, spin, mass emailing, mass propaganda posting, etc. If God is on your side then a true Christian would have nothing to fear from Obama or any other president, right?

4. I also don't recall Jesus wearing a flag pin, do you? Maybe my ministers were wrong but I was taught that Christianity transcended nationalism. If that's the case why are conservatives so adamant about labeling people as "Anti-American", technically if you're Christian it shouldn't matter, right?

5. Why aren't conservatives crying about candidates wearing Christian pins since faith and patriotism are two things that equally can't be measured.

6. Why is it whenever a Christian bombs an abortion clinic (remember Eric Rudolf?), shoots a church or commits an act of mayhem you're quick to say "they weren't a real Christian". It seems they were real right up until the moment they committed the act, right? What's to say you Irish, Jetlagg or Srppa won't do the exact same thing (especially considering how you all have worked yourselves up lately)? See the list I post below from the SPLC, I know someone is going to say "these people aren't real Christians", but there's an obvious trend there. Many of you seem to want to wave around stats and facts regarding Black crime, well here are FACTS and STATS on Christian crime. Anyone want to explain what's happening?

7. There are numerous passages regarding judgement in the Bible, yet the ones I see doing the most judging are the handful of fanatics bombarding this board with anti-Obama material, now how Christian is that? The man isn't even in office and day in and out you're creating what-if scenarios and predicting doom and end of the world events. Did not God himself reserve knowledge that for himself? Are you "speaking for God" or are you taking the Lord's name in vain and speaking for yourself?

I'm a Christian, but nothing like the Christians I read from here (thank God for that). My Christianity is tolerant, loving and accepting of everyone, all races, all colors, all orientations. I have a sneaking suspicion that your Pastors would be shocked were they to know some of you feel the way you do. I also wonder what church you go to that teaches this stuff?

Also interesting is that fact that there are a number of Pastors who read these boards, but NONE of them chime in on these discussions. What happened to the Pastors of the past who took a stand on issues?

Here's an interesting bit of information from the Southern Poverty Law Center, it may surprise you to know what some of your Christian brothers and sisters are up to. Note: the data goes up to 2005, but I'm quite sure with the amount of activity surrounding the Obama campaign they are going to spike a lot higher than usual.

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp
?pid=906
"In the 10 years since the April 19, 1995, bombing in Oklahoma City, in fact, the radical right has produced some 60 terrorist plots. These have included plans to bomb or burn government buildings, banks, refineries, utilities, clinics, synagogues, mosques, memorials and bridges; to assassinate police officers, judges, politicians, civil rights figures and others; to rob banks, armored cars and other criminals; and to amass illegal machine guns, missiles, explosives, and biological and chemical weapons. "

To keep it readable I'll only post data from 2001 on:

2001

March 1, 2001
As part of an ongoing probe into a white supremacist group, federal and local law enforcement agents raid the Corbett, Ore., home of Fritz Springmeier, seizing equipment to grow marijuana and weapons and racist literature. They also find a binder notebook entitled "Army of God, Yahweh's Warriors" that contains what officials call a list of targets, including a local federal building and the FBI's Oregon offices. Springmeier, an associate of the anti-Semitic Christian Patriots Association, is eventually charged with setting off a diversionary bomb at an adult video store in Damascus, Ore., in 1997 as part of a bank robbery carried out by accomplice Forrest Bateman Jr. Another 2001 raid finds small amounts of bomb materials and marijuana in Bateman's home. Eventually, Bateman pleads guilty to bank robbery and Springmeier is convicted of the same charges, and both are sentenced to nine years.


April 19, 2001
White supremacists Leo Felton and girlfriend Erica Chase are arrested following a foot chase that began when a police officer spotted them trying to pass counterfeit bills at a Boston donut shop. Investigators quickly learn Felton heads up a tiny group called Aryan Unit One, and that Chase and Felton, who had already obtained a timing device, planned to blow up black and Jewish landmarks and possibly assassinate black and Jewish leaders. They also learn another amazing fact: Felton, a self-described Aryan, is secretly biracial. Felton and Chase are eventually convicted of conspiracy, weapons violations and obstruction, and Felton is also convicted of bank robbery and other charges. Felton, who previously served 11 years for assaulting a black taxi driver, is sentenced to serve more than 21 years in federal prison, while his one-time sweetheart draws a lesser term.


Oct. 14, 2001
A North Carolina sheriff's deputy pulls over Steve Anderson, a former "colonel" in the Kentucky Militia, on a routine traffic stop as he heads home to Kentucky from a white supremacist gathering in North Carolina. Anderson, who has issued violent threats against officials for months via an illegal pirate radio station and is an adherent of racist Christian Identity theology, pulls out a semi-automatic weapon and peppers the deputy's car with bullets before driving his truck into the woods and disappearing for 13 months. Officials later find six pipe bombs in Anderson's abandoned truck and 27 bombs and destructive devices in his home. In the end, Anderson apologizes for his actions and pleads guilty. He is sentenced on a variety of firearms charges to 15 years in federal prison.


Dec. 5, 2001
Anti-abortion extremist Clayton Lee Wagner, who nine months earlier escaped from an Illinois jail while awaiting sentencing on weapons and carjacking charges, is arrested in Cincinnati, Ohio. Wagner's odyssey began in September 1999, when he was stopped driving a stolen camper in Illinois and told police he was headed to Seattle to murder an abortion provider. He escaped in February 2001 and, while on the lam, mailed more than 550 hoax anthrax letters to abortion clinics and posted an Internet threat warning abortion clinic workers that "if you work for the murderous abortionist, I'm going to kill you." Wagner is eventually sentenced to 30 years on the Illinois charges, including his escape. In Ohio, he is sentenced to almost 20 years more, to be served consecutively, on various weapons and car theft charges related to his time on the run. In late 2003, he also is found guilty of 51 federal terror charges, but his sentencing is deferred.


Dec. 11, 2001
Jewish Defense League chairman Irving David Rubin and a follower, Earl Leslie Krugel, are arrested in California and charged with conspiring to bomb the offices of U.S. Rep. Darrel Issa (R-Calif.) and the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City. Authorities say a confidential informant taped meetings with the two in which the bombings were discussed and Krugel said the jdl needed "to do something to one of their filthy mosques." Rubin later commits suicide in prison, officials say, just before he is to go on trial in late 2002. Krugel pleads guilty to conspiracy in both plots, and testifies that Rubin conspired with him. Krugel faces a mandatory 10-year sentence, and could receive up to life in federal prison.


2002

Jan. 4, 2002
Neo-Nazi National Alliance member Michael Edward Smith is arrested after a car chase in Nashville, Tenn., that began when he was spotted sitting in a car with a semi-automatic rifle pointed at Sherith Israel Pre-School, run by a local synagogue. In Smith's car, home and storage unit, officials find an arsenal that includes a .50-caliber rifle, 10 hand grenades, 13 pipe bombs, binary explosives, semi-automatic pistols, ammunition and an array of military manuals. They also find teenage porn on Smith's computer and evidence that he carried out computer searches for Jewish schools and synagogues. In one of his e-mails, Smith wrote that Jews "perhaps" should be "stuffed head fIRSt into an oven." In the end, Smith is sentenced on weapons and explosives charges to more than 10 years in prison.


Feb. 8, 2002
The leader of a militia-like group known as Project 7 and his girlfriend are arrested after an informant tells police the group is plotting to kill judges and law enforcement officers in order to kick off a revolution. David Burgert, who has a record for burglary and is already wanted for assaulting police officers, is found in the house of girlfriend Tracy Brockway along with an arsenal that includes pipe bombs and 25,000 rounds of ammunition. Also found are "intel sheets" with personal information about law enforcement officers, their spouses and children. Although officials are convinced the Project 7 plot was real, Burgert ultimately is convicted only of weapons charges and draws a seven-year sentence; six others are also convicted of or plead guilty to weapons charges. Brockway gets a suspended sentence for harboring a fugitive.


July 19, 2002
Acting on a tip, federal and local law enforcement agents arrest North Carolina Klan leader Charles Robert Barefoot Jr. for his role in an alleged plot to blow up the Johnson County Sheriff's Office, the sheriff himself and the county jail. Officers find more than two dozen weapons in Barefoot's home. They also find bombs and bomb components in the home of Barefoot's son, Daniel Barefoot, who is charged that same day with the arson of a school bus and an empty barn. The elder Barefoot who broke away from the National Knights of the KKK several months earlier to form his own harder-line group, the Nation's Knights of the KKK is charged with weapons violations and later sentenced to more than two years. In 2003, Barefoot's wife and three men are charged with the murder of a former associate. Police say the murder may have been related to the alleged bombing plot.


Aug. 22, 2002
Tampa area podiatrist Robert J. Goldstein is arrested after police, called by Goldstein's wife after he allegedly threatened to kill her, find more than 15 explosive devices in their home, along with materials to make at least 30 more. Also found are homemade C-4 plastic explosives, grenades and mines, a .50-caliber rifle, semi-automatic weapons, and a list of 50 Islamic worship centers in the area. The most significant discovery is a three-page plan detailing plans to "kill all 'rags'" at the Islamic Society of Pinellas County. Eventually, two other local men are also charged in connection with the plot, and Goldstein's wife is arrested for possessing illegal destructive devices. In the end, Goldstein pleads guilty to plotting to blow up the Islamic Society and is sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison.


Oct. 3, 2002
Officials close in on long-time antigovernment extremist Larry Raugust at a rest stop in Idaho, arrest him and charge him with 16 counts of making and possessing destructive devices, including pipe bombs and pressure-detonated booby traps. He is accused of giving one explosive device to an undercover agent, and is also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot with colleagues in the Idaho Mountain Boys militia to murder a federal judge and a police officer, and to break a friend out of jail. A deadbeat dad, Raugust is also accused of helping plant land mines on property belonging to a friend whose land was seized by authorities over unpaid taxes. He eventually pleads guilty to 15 counts of making bombs and is sentenced to federal prison. Raugust is expected to be released in 2008.

Jan. 8, 2003
Federal agents arrest Matt Hale, the national leader of the neo-Nazi World Church of the Creator (WCOTC), as he reports to a Chicago courthouse in an ongoing copyright case over the name of his group. Hale is charged with soliciting the murder of the federal judge in the case, Joan Humphrey Lefkow, who he has publicly vilified as someone bent on the destruction of his group. (Although Lefkow originally ruled in wcotc's favor, an appeals court found that the complaint brought by an identically named church in Oregon was legally justified, and Lefkow reversed herself accordingly.) In guarded language captured on tape recordings, Hale is heard agreeing that his security chief, an FBI informant, should kill Lefkow. Hale is eventually found guilty and sentenced to serve 40 years in federal prison.


Jan. 18, 2003
James D. Brailey, a convicted felon who once was selected as "governor" of the state of Washington by the antigovernment Washington Jural Society, is arrested after a raid on his home turns up a machine gun, an assault rifle and several handguns. One informant tells the FBI that Brailey was plotting to assassinate Gov. Gary Locke, both because Locke was the state's real governor and because he was Chinese-American. A second informant says that Brailey actually went on a "dry run" to Olympia, carrying several guns into the state Capitol building to test security. Eventually, Brailey pleads guilty to weapons charges and is sentenced to serve 15 months in prison. He is released in February 2004.


Feb. 13, 2003
Federal agents in Pennsylvania arrest David Wayne Hull, imperial wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and an adherent of the anti-Semitic Christian Identity theology, alleging that Hull has arranged to buy hand grenades to blow up abortion clinics. The FBI says Hull also illegally instructed followers on how to build pipe bombs. In addition, Hull published a newsletter in which he urged readers to write Oklahoma bomber Tim McVeigh "to tell this great man goodbye." Hull eventually is found guilty of weapons violations and sentenced to 12 years in federal prison.


April 3, 2003
Federal agents arrest antigovernment extremist David Roland Hinkson in Idaho and charge him with trying to hire an assassin on two occasions in 2002 and 2003 to murder a federal judge, a prosecutor and an IRS agent involved in a tax case against him. Hinkson, a businessman who earned millions of dollars from his Water Oz dietary supplement company but refused to pay almost $1 million in federal taxes, is convicted in 2004 of 26 counts related to the tax case. In early 2005, a federal jury finds him guilty in the assassination plot as well.


April 10, 2003
The FBI raids the Noonday, Texas, home of William Krar and storage facilities he rented in the area, discovering an arsenal that includes more than 500,000 rounds of ammunition, 65 pipe bombs and remote-control briefcase bombs, and almost two pounds of deadly sodium cyanide. Also found are components to convert the cyanide into a bomb capable of killing thousands, along with white supremacist and antigovernment material. Investigators soon learn Krar was stopped earlier in 2003 by police in Tennessee, who found in his car several weapons and coded documents that seemed to detail a plot. Krar refuses to cooperate, and details of that alleged plan are never learned. Eventually, he pleads guilty to possession of a chemical weapon and is sentenced to more than 11 years in prison.


June 4, 2003
Federal agents in California announce that former accountant John Noster, in prison since November 2002 for car theft, is under investigation for plotting a major terrorist attack. Noster was first arrested as part of a car theft ring investigation, but officials who found incendiary devices in his stolen camper continued to probe his activities. Eventually, they find in various storage facilities three pipe bombs, six barrels of jet fuel, five assault weapons, cannon fuse, a large amount of ammunition and $188,000 in cash. Law enforcement officials, who describe Noster as an "antigovernment extremist," allege at a press conference that he "was definitely planning" on an attack, but they do not elaborate.


Oct. 10, 2003
Police arrest Norman Somerville after finding a huge weapons cache on his property in northern Michigan that includes six machine guns, a powerful anti-aircraft gun, thousands of rounds of ammunition, hundreds of pounds of gunpowder, and an underground bunker. They also find two vehicles Somerville calls his "war wagons," and on which prosecutors later say he planned to mount machine guns as part of a plan to stage an auto accident and then massacre arriving police. Officials describe Somerville as an antigovernment extremist enraged over the death of Scott Woodring, a Michigan Militia member killed by police a week after Woodring shot and killed a state trooper during a standoff. Somerville eventually pleads guilty to weapons charges and is sentenced to six years in prison.


2004

April 1, 2004
Neo-Nazi Skinhead Sean Gillespie videotapes himself as he firebombs Temple B'nai Israel, an Oklahoma City synagogue, as part of a film he is preparing to inspire other racists to violent revolution. In it, Gillespie boasts that instead of merely pronouncing the white-supremacist "14 Words" slogan ("We must secure the existence of our people and a future for White children"), he will carry out 14 violent attacks. A former member of the neo-Nazi Aryan Nations, Gillespie is found guilty of the attack and faces a minimum 35-year sentence without parole.


Oct. 13, 2004
Ivan Duane Braden, a former National Guardsman discharged from an Iraq-bound unit after superiors noted signs of instability, is arrested after checking into a mental health facility and telling counselors about plans to blow up a synagogue and a National Guard armory in Tennessee. The FBI reports that Braden told them he'd planned to go to a synagogue wearing a trench coat stuffed with explosives and get himself "as close to children and the rabbi as possible," a plan Braden also outlined in notes found in his home. In addition, he intended to take and kill hostages at the Lenoir City Armory, before blowing the armory up. Eventually, Braden, who also possessed neo-Nazi literature and reportedly hated blacks and Jews from an early age, pleads guilty to conspiring to blow up the armory. He faces a mandatory 10-year minimum prison sentence on two separate charges.


Oct. 25, 2004
FBI agents in Tennessee arrest farmhand Demetrius "Van" Crocker after he allegedly tried to purchase ingredients for deadly sarin nerve gas and C-4 plastic explosives from an undercover agent. The FBI alleges that Crocker, who local officials say was involved in a white supremacist group in the 1980s, tells the agent that he admires Hitler and hates Jews and the government. He allegedly also says "it would be a good thing if somebody could detonate some sort of weapon of mass destruction on Washington, D.C." Crocker is charged with trying to get explosives to destroy a building and other charges, and faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted.


2005

May 20, 2005
Officials in New Jersey arrest two men they say asked a police informant to build them a bomb. Craig Orler, who has a history of burglary arrests, and Gabriel Garafa, said to be a leader of the neo-Nazi World Church of the Creator and a member of a racist Skinhead group called The Hated, were charged with illegally selling 11 guns to police informants. Carafa allegedly gave one informant 60 pounds of urea to use in building him a bomb, but never said what the bomb was for. Police say they moved in before the alleged bombing plot developed further because they were concerned about the pair's activities. They taped Orler saying in a phone call that he was seeking people in Europe to help him go underground.

For Srppa:  I wrote this for another blog some months back, I'm reposting it here and to my messageboard since it was brought up again:

Imagine this scenario for a moment, how would you feel living under the fear that at any time someone can invade your home, drag you, your wife or your children away and there's nothing you can do about it?

Your assailant would have the law on his side to do just that and probably be an agent of or associate of law enforcement.  Fight back and you'll be jailed or killed. Speak up and you'll be beaten, jailed and/or killed.

How much of a man would you feel like if your wife or children came home beaten, molested or harassed and there wasn't a thing you could do about it. You might even know the men who did it, they aren't hiding, they would look you in the face and dare you to say something, anything.

Could you look in your wifes eyes? Could you look in the eyes of your children?

This was not slavery, this was 1965 Alabama under Bull Conner.

I read all the rhetoric being generated about Obama and quite frankly it's spoken with a voice that has never had to endure that type of fear or anger. There's a famous post about white privilege that basically sums up to white privilege is taking for granted that the laws in this country apply to you all the time. As a last resort you take comfort in the belief that your basic human rights will be honored.

This is a comfort denied to some now, but it was a national policy in the 60's. So what happens to that fear and anger?  Well, it comes out in people like Rev. Wright who grew up with living those cancerous emotions every day.

He is a highly decorated veteran who has served his country and his President with distinction, but he's also a Black man that was forced to live life in way that was not his choice.  In his era he had neither the freedoms, or ability to choose his destiny except from a narrow range of professions that the White world felt comfortble with a Black man having.  

One of those professions was Preacher.  So when he speaks, he speaks with and for those who have had to live their lives with that fear and anger and can't or won't express it.  This is where many of the Obama-detrators just doesn't get it.  They assume that a man like Rev. Wright either influences or somehow brainwashes you, he doesn't. There's enough recent history around that you don't have to look very hard to make you as mad as you want to be.

At Obama's age he would have been old enough to see the last remmnants of Jim Crow himself. You want to see it? Go right downtown to the Civil Rights Museum asnd look around. I'd bet many of you reading this have never even been there.

African-Americans of an older generation, when they speak in the words and tones like Jeremiah Wright, say to my generation "look at me, the child of a hateful America, it's your destiny and obligation to do better because I couldn't".

Being outside the culture you may not get that message, but then the message isn't being directed to you, I get it though. They say to me that the torch is passed, they paid the price so that I and others don't have to struggle with that fear and hate.  This same message is very clear to Obama and his response (via his speech in Philadelphia) shows this. 

You don't have to like Obama's politics, that's your choice. But when some choose to call him "Hussein" and go off on all the topics that have nothing to do with his politics and everything to do with his heritage it sends a clear message too.  It says that we (as Black people) have come a long way, but you (as White people) have not.

That subliminal message you are sending is received by all the people of color in the world. They watch and observe with patient and unforgiving eyes. What's amazing to many people of color is how surprised White America is when the world responds back with force.  You reap what you sow.

You want to stop the hate?  Look no farther than your own selves, your family, friends and neighbors.  Think about the messages you/they are sending. What do your words mean? How will others receive them?

Ex-Pat

www.memphisrules.com

Tom,
Driving while eating chicken? Out of a bucket? Only barbarians and uncivilized folk eat chicken while driving, and the bucket........oh my.

The sophisticated palate eats sushi or a good sweetbread!

Pass the Grey Poupon!


Ex-Pat
[This post paid for by the Coalition For Safe Eating While Driving]

I referred to this in another post to someone regarding saving money. I'm not sure if they knew what I was talking about so I'm clarifying it here.

Living in NYC is expensive. NYers pay more rent for studio apartments than many here in Memphis pay for a 4 bedroom house PLUS land. It's a fact of life, less space = more expenses to occupy that space.

Controlling the flow of your money is a way of life. You can't fall behind or you're out, so many people (especially African and Caribbean immigrants) use what is known as a Su-Su to tide them over, or to get ahead of the debt game.

Essentially a su-su is money pooling. An informal savings plan where a group of people (usually an even number for cleaner math) put a pre-designated amount of money in a pot, and each person gets the whole pot at regular intervals.

For example. A typical su-su may have 10 people, all putting in $100 monthly (or weekly, bi-weekly, etc.). The su-su will last 10 rounds, each round one member of the group will collect $1000 until all have gotten their pay-off.

Sounds simple, right? It is. Sometimes the simplest of methods can yield short term boosts.

Su-su's have varying intervals and varying amounts, it's up to the group members to decide how much and how long.

As with anything money related it pays to su-su with people you know and trust, and that can make their payments. Nothing can break up a friendship like money, and as with anything your mileage may vary.

I have posted a number of articles better explaining the roots and practice of su-su at my discussion group at: www.memphisrules.com in the 'cheapskates-r-us' section. Feel free to discuss this here (at Myfoxmemphis) or there.


Ex-Pat